CATV video and data transmission system with signal insertion

ABSTRACT

Improved systems and methods for delivering CATV content over a fiber optic network from a transmitter.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 13/844,098,“CATV Video and Data Transmission System with RF Input”, filed on Mar.15, 2013; U.S. application Ser. No. 13/844,115, entitled “CATV Video andData Transmission System with Digital Input”, filed on Mar. 15, 2013;U.S. application Ser. No. 13/843,922, entitled “CATV Video and DataTransmission System with RF and Digital Combining Network”, filed onMar. 15, 2013; U.S. application Ser. No. 13/843,996, entitled “CATVVideo and Data Transmission System with Automatic Parameter Control”,filed on Mar. 15, 2013; U.S. application Ser. No. 13/843,950, entitled“CATV Video and Data Transmission System with Hybrid Input”, filed onMar. 15, 2013; and U.S. application Ser. No. 13/843,970, entitled “CATVVideo and Data Transmission System with Automatic DispersionCompensation”, filed on Mar. 15, 2013.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods that provide videoand data over a cable transmission network.

Referring to FIG. 1, cable TV (CATV) systems were initially deployed asvideo delivery systems. In its most basic form the system received videosignals at the cable head end, processed these for transmission andbroadcast them to homes via a tree and branch coaxial cable network. Inorder to deliver multiple TV channels concurrently, early CATV systemsassigned 6 MHz blocks of frequency to each channel and FrequencyDivision Multiplexed (FDM) the channels onto the coaxial cable RFsignals. Amplifiers were inserted along the path as required to boostthe signal and splitters and taps were deployed to enable the signals toreach the individual homes. Thus all homes received the same broadcastsignals.

As the reach of the systems increased, the signal distortion andoperational cost associated with long chains of amplifiers becameproblematic and segments of the coaxial cable were replaced with fiberoptic cables to create a Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) network to deliver theRF broadcast content to the coaxial neighborhood transmission network.Optical nodes in the network acted as optical to electrical convertersto provide the fiber-to-coax interfaces.

As the cable network evolved, broadcast digital video signals were addedto the multiplexed channels. The existing 6 MHz spacing for channels wasretained but with the evolving technology, each 6 MHz block could nowcontain multiple programs. Up to this point, each home received the sameset of signals broadcast from the head end so that the amount ofspectrum required was purely a function of the total channel count inthe program line-up.

The next major phase in CATV evolution was the addition of high speeddata service, which is an IP packet-based service, but appears on theHFC network as another 6 MHz channel block (or given data servicegrowth, more likely as multiple 6 MHz blocks). These blocks use FDM toshare the spectrum along with video services. Unlike broadcast video,each IP stream is unique. Thus the amount of spectrum required for dataservices is a function of the number of data users and the amount ofcontent they are downloading. With the rise of the Internet video, thisspectrum is growing at 50% compound annual growth rate and puttingsignificant pressure on the available bandwidth. Unlike broadcast video,data services require a two-way connection. Thus, the cable plant had toprovide a functional return path. Pressure on the available bandwidthhas been further increased with the advent of narrowcast video servicessuch as video-on-demand (VOD), which changes the broadcast video modelas users can select an individual program to watch and use VCR-likecontrols to start, stop, and fast-forward. In this case, as with dataservice, each user requires an individual program stream.

Thus, the HFC network is currently delivering a mix of broadcast video,narrowcast video, and high speed data services. Additional bandwidth isneeded both for new high definition broadcast channels and for thenarrowcast video and data services. The original HFC network has beensuccessfully updated to deliver new services, but the pressure of HD andnarrowcast requires further change. The HFC network is naturally splitinto the serving areas served from the individual fiber nodes. Thebroadcast content needs to be delivered to all fiber nodes, but thenarrowcast services need only be delivered to the fiber node serving thespecific user. Thus, there is a need to deliver different service setsto each fiber node and also to reduce the number of subscribers servedfrom each node (i.e. to subdivide existing serving areas and thusincrease the amount of narrowcast bandwidth available per user).

FIG. 1 shows part of the cable TV infrastructure which includes thecable head end; the Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) transmission network, andthe home. The CATV head end receives incoming data and video signalsfrom various sources (e.g., fiber optic links, CDN's, DBS satellites,local stations, etc.). The video signals are processed (reformatting,encryption, advertising insertion etc.) and packaged to create theprogram line up for local distribution. This set of video programs iscombined with data services and other system management signals andprepared for transmission over the HFC to the home. All information(video, data, and management) is delivered from the head end over theHFC network to the home as RF signals. In the current practice, systemsin the head end process the signals, modulate them to create independentRF signals, combine these into a single broadband multiplex, andtransmit this multiplex to the home. The signals (different videochannels and one or more data and management channels) are transmittedconcurrently over the plant at different FDM frequencies. In the home, acable receiver decodes the incoming signal and routes it to TV sets orcomputers as required.

Cable receivers, including those integrated into set-top boxes and othersuch devices, typically receive this information from the head end viacoaxial transmission cables. The RF signal that is delivered cansimultaneously provide a wide variety of content, e.g. high speed dataservice and up to several hundred television channels, together withancillary data such as programming guide information, ticker feeds,score guides, etc. Through the cable receiver's output connection to thehome network, the content is delivered to television sets, computers,and other devices. The head end will typically deliver CATV content tomany thousands of individual households, each equipped with a compatiblereceiver.

Cable receivers are broadly available in many different hardwareconfigurations. For example, an external cable receiver is oftenconfigured as a small box having one port connectable to a wall outletdelivering an RF signal, and one or more other ports connectable toappliances such as computers, televisions, and wireless routers or othernetwork connections (e.g., 10/100/1,000 Mbps Ethernet). Other cablereceivers are configured as circuit cards that may be insertedinternally in a computer to similarly receive the signals from an RFwall outlet and deliver those signals to a computer, a television, or anetwork, etc. Still other cable receivers may be integrated into set-topboxes, such as the Motorola DCX3400 HD/DVR, M-Card Set-Top, whichreceives an input signal via an RF cable, decodes the RF signal toseparate it into distinct channels or frequency bands providingindividual content, and provides such content to a television or otheraudio or audiovisual device in a manner that permits users to eachselect among available content using the set top box.

As previously mentioned, the CATV transmission architecture has beenmodified to permit data to flow in both directions, i.e. data may flownot only from the head end to the viewer, but also from the viewer tothe head end. To achieve this functionality, cable operators dedicateone spectrum of frequencies to deliver forward path signals from thehead end to the viewer, and another (typically much smaller) spectrum offrequencies to deliver return path signals from the viewer to the headend. The components in the cable network have been modified so that theyare capable of separating the forward path signals from the return pathsignals, and separately amplifying the signals from each respectivedirection in their associated frequency range.

FIG. 2 shows a Hybrid/Fiber Coax (HFC) cable network. A head end system120 includes multiple devices for delivery of video and data servicesincluding EdgeQAMS (EQAMs) for video, cable modem termination systems(CMTS) for data, and other processing devices for control andmanagement. These systems are connected to multiple fiber optic cables100 that go to various neighborhood locations that each serve a smallercommunity. A fiber optic neighborhood node 130 is located between eachfiber optic cable 120 and a corresponding trunk cable 140, which in turnis interconnected to the homes 160 through branch networks and feedercables 150. Because the trunk cable 140, as well as the branch networksand feeder cables 150, each propagate RF signals using coaxial cable,the nodes 130 convert the optical signals to electrical signals that canbe transmitted through a coaxial medium, i.e. copper wire. Similarly,when electrical signals from the home reach the node 130 over thecoaxial medium, those signals are converted to optical signals andtransmitted across the fiber optic cables 100 back to the systems at thehead end 120. The trunk cables 140 and/or feeder cables 150 may includeamplifiers 170. Connected to each trunk cable 140 is a branch networkthat connects to feeder cables (or taps) that each enter individualhomes to connect to a respective cable receiver. This is generallyreferred to as Fiber-to-the-Neighborhood (FTTN) or Fiber-to-the-Curb(FTTC), depending on how close the optical nodes are to the viewer'shome.

Hybrid fiber/coax networks generally have a bandwidth of approximately500 MHz or more. Each television channel or other distinct content itemtransmitted along the forward path from the head end to a user may beassigned a separate frequency band, which as noted earlier has a typicalspectral width of 6 MHz. Similarly, distinct content delivered along thereturn path from a user to the head end may similarly be assigned aseparate frequency band, such as one having a spectral width of 6 MHz.In North America, the hybrid fiber/coax networks assign the frequencyspectrum between 5 MHz and 42 MHz to propagate signals along the returnpath, and assign the frequency spectrum between 50 MHz and 750 MHz ormore to propagate signals along the forward path.

Referring to FIG. 3, a cable modem termination system (CMTS) 200 may beinstalled at the head end, which instructs each of the cable modems whento transmit return path signals, such as Internet protocol (IP) basedsignals, and which frequency bands to use for return path transmissions.The CMTS 200 demodulates the return path signals, translates them backinto (IP) packets, and redirects them to a central switch 210. Thecentral switch 210 redirects the IP packets to an IP router 220 fortransmission across the Internet 230, and to the CMTS which modulatesforward path signals for transmission across the hybrid fiber coaxcables to the user's cable modem. The central switch 210 also sendsinformation to, and receives information from, information servers 240such as video servers. The central switch 210 also sends information to,and receives information from, a telephone switch 250 which isinterconnected to the telephone network 260. In general, cable modemsare designed to only receive from, and send signals to, the CMTS 200,and may not communicate directly with other cable modems networkedthrough the head end.

Using this architecture, forward path signals from the head-end arebroadcast to all cable modem users on the same network or sub-network.Each cable modem filters out the portion of the signal it needs, whichmay then be selectively provided to the user. Along the return path,each cable modem delivers a signal to the head end through the CATVnetwork, and which occupies a part of a spectrum shared among othercable modems. Therefore, the system may regulate which modem's returnpath signal is delivered to the network at which time using time orfrequency division multiple access (TDMA or FDMA),

The modulation technique used to send data along the return path fromthe cable modem to the head end typically uses quadrature phase shiftkeying (QPSK) or lower order Quadrature Amplitude Modulation because ofits relatively straightforward implementation and general resistance tothe increased noise present along the return path direction. Themodulation depth selected for the upstream link in any given network isbased upon the noise levels within that particular network. Generally,modulation depths such as QPSK, 16QAM or 64QAM are used. 256 QAM orabove are almost never used in a commercial system, rather this order ofmodulation is typically only used in experimental systems. Themodulation technique used to send data along the forward path from thehead end to the cable modem typically is Quadrature Amplitude Modulation(QAM), with a higher order modulation depth, typically 256 QAM, which isefficient, but not generally as noise-resistant as QPSK. Also, becausethe downstream spectrum is the same for every cable modem or set topbox, there is no adjustment of the downstream depth of modulation basedupon the performance of a single link. All CPE gear must operate at thelowest common level.

It is desirable to provide a robust hybrid fiber/coax system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary CATV network including a head end thatdelivers CATV content to a plurality of homes.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary Hybrid/Fiber Coax CATV network, including ahead end that delivers CATV content to a plurality of homes.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary architecture of a head end, such as the onesshown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary architecture of a head end communicating witha node along a forward path to deliver CATV content over a network.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary EdgeQAM architecture for a head end tocommunicate with a node along a forward path to deliver CATV contentover a network.

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary CCAP architecture for a head end tocommunicate with a node along a forward path to deliver CATV contentover a network.

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary architecture of a neighborhood node that mayfacilitate communication from modems to a head unit along respectivereturn paths.

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary first stage of an improved CATV transmitter ina head end that converts an analog CATV signal to a digital signal.

FIG. 9 shows a first output interface optionally used in the transmitterof FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 shows a second output interface optionally used in thetransmitter of FIG. 8, which includes a Forward Error Correction (FEC)encoder.

FIG. 11 shows an exemplary serializer that may be used in thetransmitter of FIG. 8.

FIGS. 12 and 13 show an exemplary ODB precoder that may be used in thetransmitter of FIG. 8.

FIG. 14 shows a first exemplary laser transmitter that may be used onthe transmitter of FIG. 8.

FIG. 15 shows a second exemplary laser transmitter that may be used onthe transmitter of FIG. 8.

FIG. 16 shows a three-state ODB encoded electrical eye diagram.

FIG. 17 shows an exemplary transmitter of FIG. 8 having directmodulation.

FIG. 18 shows an exemplary transmitter of FIG. 8 having optical duobinary modulation.

FIG. 19 shows a host platform and a transmit subsystem.

FIG. 20 shows the host platform and transmission subsystem of FIG. 19together with an encoder and a DUC.

FIG. 21 shows the host platform and transmission subsystem of FIG. 19with multiple encoders and a DUC.

FIG. 22 shows an illustration of sample times and correspondingcodewords.

FIG. 23 shows a modified exemplary transmitter having direct modulation.

FIG. 24 shows a modified exemplary transmitter having externalmodulation.

FIG. 25 shows a receiver including a diode and a CDR.

FIG. 26 shows a receiver with including a CDR, a decoder, and adeserializer.

FIG. 27 shows a receiver including a deserializer, an FEC decoder, and arecovery.

FIG. 28 shows a receiver including a recovery, an interpolator, and aDAC.

FIG. 29 shows an embodiment of data recovery.

FIG. 30 shows an exemplary embodiment of a receiver omitting an AFE.

FIG. 31 shows a receiver including a DAC and an AFE.

FIG. 32 shows an exemplary embodiment of a receiver including an AFE.

FIGS. 33-45 show respective exemplary embodiments of a digitaltransmission system suitable for a hybrid fiber/coax system.

FIG. 46 shows an exemplary embodiment of a digital transmission systemsuitable for a hybrid fiber/coax system that processes local narrowcastinsertions using partial receiver and transmission systems.

FIG. 47 shows an exemplary embodiment of the partial receiver system ofFIG. 46.

FIG. 48 shows an exemplary embodiment of the partial transmitter systemof FIG. 46.

FIG. 49 shows another exemplary embodiment of the partial transmittersystem of FIG. 46.

FIG. 50 shows a partial direct modulation transmitter system capable ofuse in the system of FIG. 46.

FIG. 51 shows a partial externally modulated transmitter system capableof use in the system of FIG. 46.

FIGS. 52 and 53 illustrate optical dispersion.

FIG. 54 shows the frequency spectrum of two PRBS patterns.

FIG. 55 shows spectral spreading of an optical signal as a function ofwavelength.

FIGS. 56 and 57 show a system that compensates for optical dispersion.

FIGS. 58-60 each show a respective routine by which low data rate, fordetermining the amount of dispersion in an optical transmission path,can be initiated by the system shown in FIGS. 56 and 57.

FIGS. 61-63 each show a respective routine by which dispersion can beestimated by the system shown in FIGS. 56 and 57.

FIGS. 64-66 each show an alternate embodiment of a dispersioncompensation filter used in the system shown in FIGS. 56 and 57.

FIG. 67 shows an implementation of a transmitter at a head end.

FIGS. 68 and 69 illustrate an RF analog combining network.

FIG. 70 shows a modified implementation of a transmitter at a head end.

FIG. 71 shows a Direct Sample Conversion (DSC) module.

FIG. 72 shows a Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) module.

FIG. 73 shows a partial EML transmitter.

FIG. 74 shows a control block for combining and transmitting RF and datafeeds.

FIG. 75 shows two RF sources of FIG. 74 being combined in a singleinput.

FIGS. 76-78 show respective embodiments implementing the system shown inFIG. 74.

FIG. 79 shows a technique for optimizing the performance of atransmitter delivering CATV content over a fiber-optic link to areceiver.

FIGS. 80-82 show different receivers that may implement the technique ofFIG. 79.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 4-6 generally illustrate different architectures capable oftransmitting many channels of CATV content along a fiber optic pathbetween a head end and a node. The channels typically may be transmittedin the legacy analog TV format or as analog carriers modulated bydigital means, such as Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). QAM is atechnique that transmits different signals along a transmission path byusing each signal to modulate the amplitude of a respective carrierwave, where the carrier waves of the respectively carried signals areout of phase with each other. Moreover, because the vast majority ofchannels arriving to the CATV head end are in a digital format, the headend in such architectures may also include one or more mixed signalconverters to convert a digital signal to an analog one. The mixedsignal conversion and signal modulation may be combined into a singlehardware unit. For example, a typical EdgeQAM is a rack-mounted unitcapable of not only performing Digital to Analog (D/A) conversion, butalso modulating multiple signals using the QAM technique just described.

Referring specifically to FIG. 4, a head end 300 may include one or moresignal generation units such as an analog modulator 330 and/or a directmodulation EdgeQAM 340. Each EdgeQAM unit 330 and/or 340, whichpreferably includes a Digital to Analog converter and an amplifier,receives digitally encoded video signals, audio signals, and/or IPsignals and outputs an amplitude-modulated analog signal to an RFcombining network 350, which in turn combines the received signals. Anoptical transmitter 360 then sends the entire spectrum of the frequencydivision multiplexed RF signals as an analog transmission throughoptical fiber 320 along a forward path to the node 310. In thespecification, the drawings, and the claims, the terms “forward path”and “downstream” may be interchangeably used to refer to a path from ahead end to a node, a node to an end-user, or a head end to an end user.Conversely, the terms “return path”, “reverse path” and “upstream” maybe interchangeably used to refer to a path from an end user to a node, anode to a head end, or an end user to a head end. Also, it should beunderstood that, unless stated otherwise, the term “head end” will alsoencompass a “hub,” which is a smaller signal generation unit downstreamfrom a head end, often used for community access channel insertion andother purposes, that generally mimics the functionality of a head end,but may typically not include equipment such as satellite dishes andtelephone units. Hubs are commonly known to those skilled in the art ofthe present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 5, a head end 300 may in some instances include aplurality of direct modulation EdgeQAM units 340 which each receivedigitally encoded video signals, audio signals, and/or IP signals, andeach directly outputs a spectrum of amplitude-modulated analog signal ata defined frequency or set of frequencies to an RF combining network350, which in turn combines the received signals. An optical transmitter360 then sends the entire spectrum of the multiplexed signals as ananalog transmission through an optical fiber 320 along a forward path tothe node 310. Directly-modulated EdgeQAM units have become increasinglysophisticated, offering successively higher densities, which in turnmeans that each EdgeQAM unit can process more channels of CATV data. Forexample, modern EdgeQAM modulation products can now simultaneouslygenerate 32 or more channels on a single output port. With more channelsbeing modulated per output port, the amount of combining required by theRF combining network 350 is reduced, with a corresponding simplificationin the circuitry at the head end. The term ‘QAM’ is often used tointerchangeably represent either: (1) a single channel typically 6 MHzwide that is Quadrature Amplitude Modulated (thus a “32 QAM system” isshorthand for a system with 32 Quadrature Amplitude Modulated channels;or (2) the depth of modulation used by the Quadrature AmplitudeModulation on a particular channel, e.g. 256 QAM means the signal ismodulated to carry 8 bits per symbol while 4096 QAM means the signal ismodulated to carry 12 bits per symbol. A higher QAM channel count or ahigher QAM modulation means that a higher number of content “channels”can be delivered over a transmission network at a given standard ofquality for audio, video, data, etc. QAM channels are constructed to be6 MHz in bandwidth in North America, to be compatible with legacy analogTV channels and other existing CATV signals. However, more than onevideo program or cable modem system data stream may be digitally encodedwithin a single QAM channel. The term channel is unfortunately oftenused interchangeably, even though a QAM channel and a video program arenot often the same entity—multiple video programs can be and usually areencoded within a single 6 MHz QAM channel. In this case, the modernEdgeQAM modulation products generate multiple instances of the 6 MHzbandwidth QAM channels. This simplifies the head end structure sincesome subset of the RF combining is now performed within the EdgeQAMunits rather than in the external RF combining network. Packagingmultiple QAM generators within a single package also offers someeconomic value.

FIG. 6 shows a converged cable access platform (“CCAP”) system where ahead unit 300 has an EdgeQAM unit 370 that generates all of the channelsfor an entire service group using a single D/A converter and a singleamplifier. The purpose of the CCAP system is to combine the QAMfunctions and the CMTS functions in a single system in order toefficiently combine resources for video and data delivery.

Despite the recent advances in QAM architecture such as the ones justdescribed, further expansion of CATV content transmitted by opticalsignals from a head end to a node is problematic. For instance, whileoptical signals are used ubiquitously in short-distance signal paths,optical dispersion caused by the optical fibers (the spatial distortionof an optical signal) tends to degrade a signal propagated over thelarge distances inherent in CATV delivery from a head end to a node.While modal dispersion, which results from the varying speeds at whichlight travels through different propagation mediums, can be eliminatedby using single mode fiber, distortion still results from chromaticdispersion and/or polarization mode dispersion. Chromatic dispersionrefers to the spreading of a light signal emitted at more than onewavelength, due to the differing propagation speeds at the respectivewavelengths. Though some lasers can emit light in very narrow spectralbands, no laser can emit light at a single, monochromatic wavelength,hence chromatic dispersion will always occur. Polarization modedispersion results from the difference in propagation constants of afiber optic cable due to imperfections in its geometry. Dispersion isparticularly limiting when seeking to expand CATV content delivered overa fiber optic cable using techniques such as wavelength divisionmultiplexing (WDM), where dispersion causes interference between themultiplexed signals.

Another example of an impediment to CATV content expansion over longdistances of fiber optic cable is laser jitter, which is thedisplacement of an optical signal's edge from its intended location.Though some jitter is deterministic, in the sense that it can becalculated and compensated for, other components of jitter may be causedby thermal noise (called Gaussian jitter) or other random effects.

Yet another example of an impediment to CATV content expansion over longdistances of fiber optic cable is laser chirp. As a laser's current ischanged to provide the signal being propagated, the laser's carrierdensity changes and therefore results in a time-dependent phase change,where variations in a signal output from a laser causes modulations infrequency.

While the foregoing challenges to delivering increasing amounts of CATVcontent over long distances of fiber optic cable are daunting, datatransmission over the return path channel from the node to the head endhas certain characteristics that minimize such obstacles, and digitaltransmission of the reverse path signal is a practical and relativelycommon technique used today. For example, return path required bandwidthis typically 85 MHz or less, SNR and power requirements are relativelylow, and required signal quality is more relaxed for the return path.Accordingly, FIG. 7 shows a hybrid fiber/coaxial cable architecture 400that propagates data along a return path from the cable modems 410(including set top boxes) of each viewer, which are combined together atthe neighborhood node 420 and forwarded to a head end 460. Theneighborhood node 420 includes an Analog to Digital (A/D) converter 430which receives the analog inputs from each of the cable modems 410through respective coaxial cables 415 and outputs a digital opticalsignal. The output of the A/D converter 430 is serialized by aserializer 440 and sent over a fiber-optic transmission line 450 to thehead end 460 where it is received by an optical receiver (not shown).The optical receiver may feed the received optical signal to afield-programmable gate array (“FPGA”) where it is de-serialized andprovided to the input of a Digital to Analog (D/A) converter. Theoriginal return path radio frequency (“RF”) spectrum is recreated at theoutput of the D/A converter.

As indicated previously, while transmission of signals over fiber opticcable along a return path presents something of a challenge due to theobstacles of maintaining a coherent optical signal over great distances,these challenges are magnified may times over when transmitting opticalsignals over great distances along a forward path. Before turning to thespecifics of the differences in design constraints between forward andreturn path transmission systems, it can be noted that the differencesresult from the different uses to which the forward path and return pathare put, respectively. The forward path channel is designed tofacilitate the transmission of a large number of channels requiring ahigh bandwidth over a long distance. In contrast, the return pathchannel is designed to facilitate the transmission of a much smaller setof signals, requiring much less bandwidth over a significantly shorterdistance, at least initially from the home to the node, at considerablylower power levels.

To recite some specific differences in design constraints between theforward and return paths, the frequency ranges used for the forward pathtransmission and the return path transmission generally do not overlap,and they generally differ in scale by an order of magnitude or more.Typically, the bandwidth for the return path is assigned to a frequencyrange beginning at 5 MHz and typically extending to either 42 MHz, 65MHz, or 85 MHz depending on system architecture. The bandwidth for theforward path, however, is typically assigned to a range beginning eitherat 50 MHz, 70 MHz, or 90 MHz and often extending to 1 GHz or more, againdepending on the system architecture where the greater the bandwidth,the greater the channel carrying capacity. The significant bandwidthdisparity traditionally limits the designs used for the architecture forpropagating data along the forward and reverse paths, respectively.

The type of modulation used for transmissions along the forward andreturn paths, respectively, are generally different, not only because ofthe differing channel characteristics, but also differing signal tonoise (SNR) requirements for the respective paths. The forward path SNRrequirements are substantially more stringent than the SNR requirementsfor the return path. The return path modulation is typically at 64 QAMor below, and sometimes as low as QPSK for especially noisy environmentswhich are often present in the return path channel. The forward pathmodulation is typically 256 QAM, 1024 QAM, or 4096 QAM which is suitablefor less noisy environments which are often present in the downstreamchannel.

Moreover, the power requirements for the forward path are significantlydifferent than the power requirements for the return path, principallydue to the different frequency spectrums used by the two paths. Whentransmitting along the forward path, a head end typically uses theentire operating bandwidth available at its input in order to maximizethe channel carrying capacity, thus while a forward path having 1 GHz ofavailable bandwidth would typically use 950 MHz of that bandwidth, areturn path having 42 MHz of available bandwidth would typically onlyuse 35 MHz of that bandwidth, due to the inherent practical limitationsof the return band structure, not discussed here. This represents adifference in per-channel power between the forward and return paths,respectively, of more than 14 db (27 times), which is significant whendesigning an architecture that maintains the power consumption ofnetworked cable modems to modest levels.

Still further, the expected signal quality for the downstream channel issignificantly higher than the expected signal quality for the upstreamchannel as the downstream channel must support broadcast video. Inparticular, it is undesirable to provide downstream signal transmissionsthat are prone to error since the user, who is watching the downstreamcontent, is more likely to notice even those errors that occur over avery brief interval and thus such errors degrade the user's viewingexperience. Conversely, an upstream transmission is notcontemporaneously monitored by a user, hence an upstream transmissionhaving a greater number of retransmissions to correct errors is notgenerally noticeable to the user because the retransmissions typicallyoccur over too short an interval for the user to become aware of them.Also, even if a user's experience is adversely affected by errors in anupstream transmission, only one user is impacted. Still further, thedownstream transmission is continuous in nature, while the upstreamtransmission is in a burst mode thereby sending data only on an asneeded basis, thus relaxing the channel requirements for the burst modeis beneficial compared to the continuous transmission mode. Similarly,the system power losses are much higher for the downstream channel thanfor the upstream channel, principally due to the frequencies being used.

Existing optical transmission systems used to provide televisionchannels to users along a forward path primarily use an opticalwavelength of ˜1310 nm. This is the region where the dispersion is atits minimum for standard single mode fiber, such as G.652 type of fiber.One approach that might better utilize the fiber assets is to use atechnique called Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) that allowsmultiple optical channels—“colors”—to carry distinct signaling on thesame fiber. Generally, WDM systems are categorized as either Coarse WaveDivision Multiplexing (CWDM) or Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM).Fundamentally, the difference between CWDM and DWDM is the spacingbetween the wavelengths and consequently the number of wavelengths thatcan be carried within a given wavelength window. DWDM has much tighterwavelength spacing and in turn allows the operator to carry morewavelengths in a given fiber. The 1310 nm transmission channel,generally does not lend itself to DWDM of existing CATV signal becauseof the modulation induced chirp of the laser itself, which is generallyintensity modulated by means of directly varying the electrical currentto the laser diode. This approach, while very efficient, not onlyintensity modulates the optical output, but also frequency modulates thesame output. This causes broadening of the optical spectrum. Inconventional glass optical fiber as generally installed today, this isnot normally a problem, since the fiber has a very low dispersioncharacteristic in the area close to the 1310 nm wavelength. However,this spectral broadening does limit the number of channels that might beWavelength Division Multiplexed due to their wide spectral bandwidth.While the operating range ˜1550 nm is more appropriate for DWDM,dispersion of light in fiber is greater at this wavelength than in the1310 nm region Typically, signal loss is ˜0.35 dB per km at 1310 nm and˜0.20 dB per km at 1550 nm. For long distance transmission, such astelephony and digital data, it is advantageous to use 1550 nm. However,special techniques must be used to minimize the spectral spreading ofthe optical signal at these wavelengths so that the dispersion effectsare minimized. While generally ˜1550 nm centered technologies lendthemselves to existing transmission architectures used in CATV systems,generally they are marginally performing and expensive. In addition,Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFA) are generally designed to operatein the 1550 nm region and are often required in practice in order toovercome the power losses associated with the multiplexing required inorder to build a DWDM transmission system.

In light of these deficiencies in existing architectures for deliveringCATV content, the present disclosure considers it preferable to usedigital baseband transmission over the optical fiber portion of the CATVnetwork to maintain the advantages associated with the capability oftransmitting such signals a substantial distance, while still providingfor analog RF output for the coaxial portions of the cable televisionnetwork to maintain compatibility with existing coaxial distributionportions of the system. Further, such a system should be structured insuch a manner to not only provide for digital transmission over theoptical fiber, but reduce the changes required for existing nodes, whichare numerous in nature. Moreover, the technique should be agnostic tothe analog signals to be distributed through the coaxial cables.

Referring to FIG. 8, rather than having the head end of the systemprovide an analog signal to the optical fiber, it is desirable for thehead end to provide a digital signal to the optical fiber along aforward path to a remote node (or hub), which may be located a greatdistance from the head end along the fiber optic network, such asdistances several tens or kilometers away, or further. At the remotenode, the digital signal is received and a digital to analog converteris used to reconstruct the original analog signals. The reconstructedanalog signal is then passed onto the coaxial cable portions of thesystem, which may otherwise remain unchanged. Accordingly, the D/Aconversion function that would have otherwise resulted in an analogsignal transmission across the fiber network is moved from inside theCATV head end to the remote node which is at a location remote from thehead end, with all digital transmission between the two. The digitalprocessing for modulation, frequency conversion, and the other aspectsare still performed by the CATV head end. But, the conversion fromdigital to analog for distribution is now performed in the node. Digitaltransmission across the optical fiber allows for longer transmissionreach, with the possibility of reducing the number of head ends andconsolidating modulation equipment that might be underused. For thedigital transmission WDM techniques may be used at 1310 nm for a limitednumber of optical wavelengths. This allows for transmission to a nodemultiple optical transmission channels on a single fiber, which in turnallows for the node to be logically split into smaller service areas.This effectively increases the usable bandwidth available per customer,especially for IP data use.

1550 nm digital transmission using WDM techniques may likewise be used,such as providing over 50 optical channels on a single fiber, totransmit digital data from the head end to the node. The lower loss ofthe fiber at 1550 nm increases the transmission distance, as compared to1310 nm, allowing for additional consolidation or offering of additionalservices. Also, digital transmission fiber optic equipment is generallymore forgiving of operating conditions and is easier to install and lessexpensive to maintain than analog digital transmission fiber opticequipment.

The head end may include, for example, a system 500 of a transmitterthat includes existing EdgeQAM modulators 510 and a Cable ModemTermination System (CMTS) unit 520. The first stage 500 of thetransmitter may also preferable include integrated up-converters and outof band (OOB) modules for set top box control and plant management. TheRF combining network 530 may preferably include passive and/or activeanalog RF power combiners to produce a composite analog signal acrossthe spectrum, such as 50 MHz to 1 GHz or more. Today, the RF combiningnetwork 530 sends the output to an analog transmitter (not shown) whichamplitude modulates a laser with the desired spectrum. This analogtransmitter is typically optimized for linearity and a low signal tonoise ratio, and preferably there is a substantially linear relationshipbetween the RF power applied to the input of the transmitter and theoptical power at the output of the transmitter. While this analogtransmitter may be used as part of the system that provides a digitalsignal to the fiber optical cables, it is preferable to remove thistransmitter and replace it with a modified analog front end havingdifferent characteristics.

A modified analog front end 540 may be used to adjust the compositelevel of the output of the RF combining network 530 so thatsubstantially the full scale of the input of the analog to digitalconverter is utilized, without regard to the channel plan, the outputlevels of the various sources, and the losses through the RF combiningnetwork. The analog front end 540 may also provide impedancetransformations and/or balanced single ended to differential conversionsto interface to the analog to digital front end. The analog front end540 may include, for example, a combination of RF amplifiers, RFattenuators, RF power detectors, and passive and/or active componentsfor filtering and/or matching.

An analog to digital (A/D) converter 550 receives a modified analogsignal from the analog front end 540 and converts it to a digitalsignal. The analog to digital converter 550 preferably has a minimumfrequency range that is sufficient to cover the RF band of interest,such as 50 MHZ, 60 MHZ, or 85 MHz to a high frequency of 1.2 GHz or moreand must be sampled at a rate of at least twice the maximum frequency ofinterest. The analog to digital converter 550 also preferably has a bitdepth of between at least 8 bits and 12 bits. From an RF performanceperspective, using the maximum number of bits available would bepreferable. The design trade-off is that a greater bit depth, orresolution, will require a higher digital signal transmission ratethrough the optical fiber and the terminal equipment at each end of thatfiber.

Referring to FIG. 9, the output of the analog to digital converter 550may include a parallel set of high speed serial interfaces which arereformatted into a parallel bus which may be efficiently processed by adigital subsystem. At this point, any unwanted bits may be discarded,the data may be formatted, and any desired in-band management controlwords are added to the data stream by in-band management module 560. Inaddition, any required framing, formatting or data delimiters would becontrolled by the in-band management subsystem. This function may alsobe integrated with the 64b/66b encoding block, or separately from any ofthe specific functional blocks described herein. These approaches arewell understood by anyone skilled in the art.

Referring to FIG. 10, Forward Error Correction module 570 may be used toreduce the number of unrecoverable transmission errors by FEC encodingbits of the bit stream. The forward error correction may be used at anysuitable location before the bits are transmitted down the opticalfiber. For example, though FIG. 10 shows the FEC encoder 570 asreceiving an input from in-band management module 560, alternativeembodiments may place the FEC encoder 570 between the A/D converter 550and the in-band management module 560, or in embodiments lacking in-bandmanagement module 560, the FEC encoder 570 may simply receive datathrough the serial bus from the A/D converter and pass the data on afterFEC correction information is inserted. Any suitable type of FEC may beselected, such as correction based upon the channel model for thesystem, the amount of FEC gain desired for a particular application, andthe amount of overhead that can be tolerated due to efficiencyrequirements.

Referring to FIG. 11, the digital processing system may in someembodiments include a serializer 580 that serializes the data and/or anencoding scheme such as the industry standard 64b/66b encoder format 590that performs 64b/66b encoding. The data is serialized in order toprovide the proper format for baseband Non-Return to Zero (NRZ)transmission over the optical fiber. The 64b/66b encoding is an encodingscheme used in order to increase the transition density of the signal onthe line and in order to make it easier for a receiving clock datarecovery (“CDR”) (shown in FIG. 12) to lock onto the incoming signal andin order for the CDR to more easily maintain lock during varying datapatterns by reducing the length of consecutive logic “1s” or logic “0s”on the optical fiber. The serializer 580 and the 64b/66b encoder mayeach be used at any suitable location before the bits are transmitteddown the optical fiber. For example, though FIG. 11 shows the serializer580 receiving an input from the FEC encoder 570, and the 64b/66b encoder590 as receiving an input from the serializer 580, alternativeembodiments may place the 64b/66b encoder 590 between the FEC encoder570 and the serializer 580.

Referring to FIG. 12, the digital processing subsystem may furtherprepare the data for optical transmission. An optical duo-binary (“ODB”)precoder 600 may be used to reduce the dispersion penalty in high speedNRZ optical transmission systems, particularly when operating in the1550 nm region. While ODB may be omitted, the use of ODB effectivelydoubles the size of the distance operating window as a function ofdispersion. Typically, ODB would not be used when operating in the 1310nm region. The line rate required on the digital link to transfer thedata depends upon the sampling rate, ADC bit depth, and the amount ofFEC gain. A typical operating condition would be to sample at 2.5 GS/s,with a bit depth of 10 bits, which yields a line rate of 25 Gbps. Theoverhead of the 64b/66b encoding is extremely small. A typical amount ofFEC overhead for such a system would be 3 Gbps, such that when FEC isused, the total line rate required would be approximately 28 Gbps. Whenoperating at data rates in the range of 25 Gbps or 28 Gbps, thedispersion is very significant relative to the width of a single bit,and consequently a dispersion penalty reduction technique such as ODB ispreferably used for longer fiber optical length. FIG. 13 illustrates alogical implementation of the ODB pre-coding function. The ODBpre-coding coding may also be referred to as an ODB differentialencoder. The physical implementation tends to vary based upon the devicetechnology used.

Referring again to FIG. 12 as well as FIG. 14, after the ODB pre-codingis completed, a clock/data recovery (“CDR”) retimer 610 may be used toreduce the jitter, noise and distortion on the data waveform prior tooptical transmission. The CDR retimer 610 tends to also reduce the BitError Rates as distance and optical loss in the fiber link increases.The digital signal is provided to the optical fiber 640 in a suitablemanner, such as a directly modulated laser 630 for O-band modulationand/or an externally modulated laser (shown in FIG. 15) for the C-Band.In the case of the directly modulated laser transmitter, the output ofthe CDR retime 610 may connect to a laser driver 620 which would, inturn, directly drive the modulation current through the laser 630. Thelaser bias current source may be either internal or external to themodulation driver 620. Both the laser driver modulation current and thelaser bias current may be adjusted to compensate for variations betweenlasers, temperature, and aging effects. The output of the laser 630 maybe coupled to the optical fiber 640 for transmission where it may or maynot be combined with other signals.

Referring to FIG. 15, a topology for an externally modulated Lasertransmitter with Optical Duo Binary encoding is illustrated. Typically,a C-Band Laser transmitter would be externally modulated, with thesource laser held at constant intensity to minimize frequency modulationof the source. The external modulator varies its optical loss inresponse to the applied electrical signal, thereby varying the intensityof the optical signal without causing frequency modulation sidebandswhich broaden the optical spectrum of the signal. In the case of an ODBencoded signal, the ODB encoder itself would typically consist of a LowPass Filter (“LPF”) 650 with a cutoff frequency that is approximatelyone half of the fundamental frequency of the bit rate. For example, anODB encoded 10 Gbps signal would have a fundamental frequency of 5 GHzand would utilize an LPF with a cutoff frequency of approximately 2.5GHz. The exact cutoff frequency that is “ideal” for transmission isrelated to the frequency response, for example, of a Mach-ZehnderModulator 660 that is being used. Preferably, the filter 650 is a brickwall type filter, but any other suitable filter may be used. The filter650 converts the two level digital data stream which has been ODBpre-coded to a true three level ODB encoded signal which is capable ofdriving a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer through the three opticalmodulation states: 180°, 0°, and −180°.

Referring to FIG. 16, an exemplary three state ODB encoded electricaleye diagram is illustrated. In addition to the ODB encoding filter,typically an RF gain stage is included between the output of the CDR 610and the input of the Mach-Zehnder Modulator 660. The Mach-Zehndertypically uses relatively high signal amplitudes, which when combinedwith the insertion loss of the encoding filter and any associatedconnections, traces, cables and matching circuits may require this RFgain stage. The three level ODB encoded signal is applied to one of theinputs of the Mach-Zehnder modulator 660 while the other input istypically biased at the midpoint of the logical switching level. A fixedbias Laser 630 is also provided to provide the optical carrier which ismodulated through the interferometer. This Laser 630 may be external tothe modulator, or included in the device. The three modulation statescreate either constructive or destructive interference through theinterferometer. At the output of the modulator 660, an amplitudemodulated digital stream which corresponds with the original datastream, prior to ODB pre-coding, will appear with states of light thatare either low power, with a phase state of 0° that corresponds to alogic “0”, or a high power output which corresponds to a phase state ofeither −180° or 180° and corresponds to a logic state of “1”. In thecircumstance that a receiver on the other end of the optical fiber 540is a direct-detect receiver, as opposed to a coherent receiver, only themagnitude of the light would be recognized, and the phase state ignored,effectively creating a magnitude output. Consequently, the Mach-ZehnderModulator 660 serves as a logical XOR gate and performs the ODB decodingfunction prior to transmission of the optical signal. However, due tothe three state nature of the encoding, the bandwidth of the modulatingsignal prior to decoding is half of the bandwidth of the original bitstream, thereby significantly reducing the spectral spreading of thelaser 630 due to modulation and in turn significantly reducing thedispersion penalty of the system. In the case where ODB is not utilized,but where an externally modulated Laser is used, the ODB encoding filtermay be removed, and a RF gain stage may be used, and the Mach-ZehnderModulator 660 may either be driven single ended or differentially.

FIGS. 17 and 18 show respective exemplary resulting head-end systemswhen using direct modulation (FIG. 17) and when using externalmodulation (FIG. 18). In either system, the entire downstream RFspectrum used in a CATV head end is provided to a transmitter whichsamples it with a broadband Analog to Digital converter covering theentire spectrum, even if a portion of the spectrum is not currentlybeing used for a particular transmission. The samples are thenserialized, transmitted over a base band digital link, and thenreformatted to feed a Digital to Analog converter at the remote node.The net result of this process is that the full RF spectrum is recreatedat the remote receiver. With such architecture, the physical reach ofthe system is increased and the dependency between the link length andlimiting analog performance metrics are removed. Further, the fiber maybe used to carry more wavelengths than are possible with analogtransmission and these wavelengths can use standard ITU grid frequenciesas they demonstrate substantially less interference than with analogwaveforms. Since the encoded spectrum includes the full spectrum, theneed for complicated intelligent up-conversion technology is notrequired at the node. This enables the system to be agnostic of theanalog modulation (single carrier QAM, OFDM, . . . ) or of the protocolsused for the original signals. This separation of the transmissionsystem from the signal formats means that it can support future changesin signals without modification; giving it a major advantage oversystems based on knowledge of the signaling format.

The discussions up to this point have shown how the system can beretrofitted into an existing infrastructure. In cases where theinstallation of the digital communication over the fiber does notrequire the re-use of existing deployments, such as a Converged CableAccess Platform (CCAP), or in cases where the existing architecture isbeing overhauled (head end to node consolidation or elimination ofselected hubs), a modified version of the transmitter architecture maybe used. In this case, all of the broadcast, narrowcast, VOD, IPTV,DOCSIS, or other content signals are combined prior to the transmissionstage and are preferably included as IP traffic to provide a moreefficient solution.

Referring to FIG. 19, video and data feeds 700 may enter a host platform710 from a variety of locations, and may preferably be carried on 10 GbEconnections. Inside the host platform 710, the video and data traffic isrouted to the appropriate transmit subsystem such as the subsystem 730by a host processor and switch core 720. A transmit subsystem istypically where all of the MAC functions would be located for the datatraffic, and any kind of video replication or encryption would takeplace. It should be understood that, although FIG. 19 shows only asingle exemplary transmit subsystem 730, there will typically be quite anumber of such subsystems that the switch core 720 routes data among,and in such a circumstance, the host platform 710 may include onetransmit subsystem 730 for each RF spectrum's worth of data and video.In this manner, the system is readily scalable to additional RFspectrum's by the inclusion of additional parallel transmit subsystems.If the transmit subsystem is located in a separate box or chassis, asspecifically illustrated in FIG. 19, then an external communicationstandard such as 10 GbE may be used. In this external case, the dataconnection to the transmit subsystem would likely include groomedtraffic, due to the fact that all of the data and video combining androuting has already occurred within the host platform. Preferably,however, the transmit subsystem may be located on a card within the hostplatform 710, and an inter-IC communication standard such as 10 gigabitmedia independent interface (“XAUI”) may be employed.

Referring to FIGS. 20-22, once the data and video signals have enteredtheir respective transmit subsystems 730, a first step may be to encodethe signals with encoder 740 based upon the modulation format desired atthe destination node. Typically, the destination would be customerpremise equipment gear and the preferred modulation format for video anddata traffic in a broadband delivery HFC (Hybrid Fiber/Coax) system isJ.83 QAM Encoding (e.g., ITU-T J.83 standard), such as using a depth ofmodulation being 64 QAM, 256 QAM, 1024 QAM, and/or 4096 QAM.Alternatively, other RF modulation encoding formats may be used,provided that the noise and bandwidth requirements for that format aremet by the rest of the system. For example, FIG. 21 illustrates an OFDMencoding modulation format for video and data traffic in a broadbanddelivery HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) system having both a J.83 QAM encoder740 and an OFDM encoder 760 that are preferably arranged in parallel, sothat both are available for any particular signal.

Once the video and data signals have been encoded in the desiredmodulation format, the next step is to process the signals with adigital up-converter (“DUC”) 750 to create a digital representation ofthe final RF spectrum that is intended to be generated. Typically,digital up conversion is used in the application of an EdgeQAM, wherethe integrated up-converter 750 is used to create the RF spectrumlocally. In the case of the present disclosure, the digitalup-conversion is not co-located with a corresponding digital to analogconverter, but rather, the corresponding digital to analog converter isremotely located at the node, with any required digital frequencyconversion performed back in the head end or similar place. This enablesthe use of digital transport to the node as previously described. Itshould also be understood, that although the specification and drawingsillustrates the processing of the signal from the encoders 740 and 760as proceeding to an “up-converter” 750, that term should be understoodto encompass any form of frequency conversion, whether up-converting,down-converting, etc. In some embodiments, for example, where the inputsignal was oversampled by the encoders 740 and/or 760, a down-convertermight be used instead of an up-converter. Still in other embodiments,frequency conversion might be omitted.

Referring specifically to FIG. 22, at a low level, a digitalup-converter includes complicated digital signal processing. At a highlevel, a digital up-converter outputs a series of digital codewords,clocked by a high speed conversion clock which is at least twice themaximum frequency contained in the RF spectrum. These codewordsrepresent the relative power level of the RF spectrum at the intervalsof the conversion clock. For example, the following series of codes aregenerated in series: 01110, 10011, 00101, 00101, 10011, 10011. Thesecodes are representations of what the instantaneous power of the RFwaveform, which is created through direct digital synthesis, would be atthe instant of each sample clock edge. In actuality, at the time ofdigital up-conversion, the waveform does not yet exist. The digitalup-converter 750 creates the codewords needed in order to create thewaveform in the first place. In order to ultimately create the RFwaveform, these codewords are provided to a Digital to Analog Converter(DAC) along with the appropriate conversion clock. If these codewordsare sent to a DAC, and converted with the mathematically determinedconversion clock, then the output of the DAC will have the intended RFwaveform, plus the conversion alias waveforms. Once an anti-aliasingfilter is applied, the originally intended waveform will have beencreated. In this invention, these codewords are not sent directly to aDAC. Rather, these codewords (which are typically in a parallel dataformat) are instead fed to the digital processing subsystem of thetransmit subsystem in order to prepare them for serial transmission tobe eventually received by a remote digital to analog converter e.g. onelocated in the node.

Referring to FIG. 23, the AFL and ADC components of FIG. 17 may bereplaced by the J.83 encoder 740 and the OFDM encoder 760 together withthe DUC 750 to provide a modified transmitter with direct modulation.Similarly, referring to FIG. 24, the AFE and ADC components of FIG. 18may be replaced by the J.83 encoder 740 and the OFDM 760 encodertogether with the DUC 750 to provide a modified transmitter with directmodulation.

One function of the receiver at the node is to convert the basebanddigital optical bit stream received from the fiber 640 into a fullspectrum RF signal. Referring to FIG. 25, a first stage 800 of thereceiver may perform this optical to electrical conversion. The receivermay use a direct detection photodiode 810 to receive the optical signalfrom the fiber 640. Either a PIN diode, an APD or any other device thatperforms an optical to electrical conversion may be used. The photodiode810 converts the optical signal received from the fiber 640 into anelectrical signal with a magnitude that is generally proportional to theoptical power intensity on the fiber 640. In the case of amulti-wavelength system, an optical filter or demultiplexer (not shown)would be optically located between the fiber and the photodiode. Thephotodiode 810 is preferably connected to a Trans-Impedance Amplifier(“TIA”) 820 which converts the photocurrent into a voltage as a functionof the trans-impedance gain. The output of the TIA 820 is provided to alimiting amplifier (LIA) and then provided to a Clock/Data Recovery andRetiming (“CDR”) circuit 830. In some embodiments, the limitingamplifier function may be included in the CDR 830. The CDR 830 mayprovide substantial jitter, noise and distortion reduction and improvedsignal eye quality, which in turn improves the overall link budget.

In embodiments where the transmission is not Optical Duo Binary, adirect detection receiver may use, for example, the average power levelof the signal eye as the vertical decision threshold. This works forboth standard NRZ (Non Return to Zero) and ODB, but is not ideal forboth. The TIA and LIA 820 are preferably capable of operating in one ofthree modes. Mode 1 is a threshold mode that is preferred for NRZreception. Mode 2 is a threshold mode that is preferred for ODBtransmission. Mode 3 is a compromise mode between the first two modes.Multiple threshold modes are not required, but using multiple thresholdsimproves the link budget performance. NRZ signals may be received in ODBmode and ODB signals may be received in NRZ mode, but in both cases,link budget will suffer due to degradation in the optical to electricalconverted eye diagram.

Referring to FIG. 26, after the signal has passed through the CDR 830,it may pass through a 64b/66b decoder 840, or similar, if the originalsignal was 64b/66b encoded. In some embodiments the 64b/66b decodingfunction may be included in the CDR 830, or otherwise performedseparately. After 64b/66b decoding, the signal may be deserialized bydeserializer 850 for further processing.

Referring to FIG. 27, after the signal has been deserialized, it ispassed to an FEC decoder 860 and error correction block 870 (e.g.,in-band management recovery), if FEC encoding and in-band managementrecovery was performed at the encoder. The FEC parity may be checked andany errored bits may be corrected. After Error Correction, the in-bandmanagement control words may be removed from the bit stream and used tocontrol functions, such as a TIA/LIA threshold adjustment or a rangedelay control.

Referring to FIGS. 28 and 29, a sample interpolator 880 may fill back inthe gaps due to the removal of the in-band management control words. Thesample interpolator 880 provides multiple benefits. First, the in-bandmanagement signals use up line bandwidth and the sample interpolator 880restores this bandwidth. Second, the timing relationship between thedata codewords and the conversion clock and the sample interpolator 880maintains this relationship without causing a word skip to occur. Third,the signals of interest are sensitive and the signal interpolatorreduces the distortion of the intended RF signal. FIG. 29 shows thefunctionally of the signal interpolator 880 as it takes the codewords oneither side of the gap where a management control word was included andcalculates an estimated value of what the signal most likely should beat that sample point and inserts that word in its place. After thesample interpolator 880, the codewords may be provided to a Digital toAnalog Converter (DAC) 890. The codewords may be formatted to match theinterface of the DAC.

The accuracy of the conversion clock for the DAC 890 in large partcontrols the overall performance of the system and may determine thesignal quality of the final RF spectrum. The conversion clock used atthe DAC 890 should be at “precisely” the same frequency at which thecodeword samples of the digitally represented bit stream were eithergenerated in a direct digital synthesis system or captured in an ADCsampled system. Phase offsets or delays do not necessarily affect thesignal quality, but may be relevant with regards to latency and qualityof service, particularly when delivering voice traffic. Rather thanphase offsets or delays, the conversion clock should have an accuratefrequency and low phase noise (clock jitter). In generating such aconversion clock for the DAC 890, the frequency of the line is notidentical to the conversion clock frequency. At a minimum, the line rateof an NRZ bit stream in a system should be equal to the conversion clockfrequency multiplied by the bit depth. For example, if a samplingfrequency of 2.5 GSps, along with a bit depth of 10 is used, the linerate would be 10 bits times 2.5 GSps, which equals 25 Gbps. It isunlikely that the system would be able to maintain that bit rate withoutany additional overhead. Likely sources of additional overhead, mayinclude for example, the 64b/66b encoding and forward error correction.Each of these overhead sources increases the line rate required on thephysical link. Accordingly, the actual clock rate should be recoveredand extracted to determine a conversion clock for the DAC 890, ratherthan using the clock rate of the link.

Referring to FIG. 30, the conversion clock may be effectively recoveredfrom a number of different locations within the receiver circuit. Thepreferred location(s) to recover the conversion clock depends upon theparticular embodiment and will be affected by details such as whether ornot a fractional Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) is used and whether the linerate is an integer multiple of the conversion clock frequency. In someimplementations, it may be advantageous to choose a FEC encoding schemewhich provides an overhead which, when added to the 64b/66b encodingscheme results in a final line rate which is an integer multiple of theconversion clock. Due to these variations in implementations, there areseveral different locations within the receiver at which the data streamclock can be used to recover the conversion clock.

If the line rate is an integer multiple of the conversion clock, it ispreferred to use the output from the Clock and Data Recovery andRetiming block to recover the conversion clock. In this case the CDRextracts the clock from the line data and feeds this clock into a firstPLL 900 which uses a prescaler to produce a divided down version of theline clock that is equal to the conversion clock frequency. For improvedperformance, it is preferable to use a second PLL 910 to lower the phasenoise and “clean up” the conversion clock. In some embodiments, such anasynchronous embodiment, it may be desirable to use the recovered clockas a reference to clock the data out of the sample interpolator and intothe DAC. In some embodiments, such as a synchronous embodiment, therecovered clock may not need to be used as a reference.

Often the overhead created by the 64b/66b encoding in and of itself willaffect the line rate such that it is not an integer multiple of theconversion clock frequency. In cases where 64b/66b encoding is used, butFEC is not used, it is preferable to extract the clock at a point afterthe 64b/66b encoding has been removed. In addition to the 64b/66bencoding, the FEC encoding overhead may or may not result in a line ratethat is an integer multiple of the sampling clock. While it may beadvantageous to keep the line rate at an integer multiple of thesampling clock, other factors such as channel characteristics or linkbudgets or system error rates may necessitate the use of FEC encodingwhich is not compatible with this approach. Therefore depending upon theparticular embodiment, the 64b/66b encoding and the Forward ErrorCorrection, any of the conversion clock recovery approaches shown in thediagram above may be employed.

Referring to FIG. 31, after the digital codewords that represent the RFspectrum are determined, and a conversion clock has been recovered, thedata may be sent to the Digital to Analog Converter 890 for conversionto an analog RF spectrum. The Digital to Analog Converter 890 transformsthe digital codewords back into a broadband RF signal. However, theoutput of the DAC may not be appropriate for direct connection to thecoaxial distribution network. Therefore, an Analog Front End (AFE) 920is used in order to prepare the RF output of the DAC for delivery intothe coaxial network for distribution. One function of the AFE 920 is toprovide anti-aliasing filtering to remove the high frequency aliasimages and the harmonics of the conversion clock frequency from thespectrum. The alias images and clock harmonics are effectively noisethat would otherwise be added to the distribution network, and canadversely affect the performance of the RF amplification and gaincontrol stages that follow. Another function of the AFE 920 is toprovide RF amplification, gain control and tilt to allow the operator toset the output levels of the downstream spectrum as required for theparticular network topology that the particular spectrum is serving. Yetanother function of the AFE 920 is to provide RF Diplex Filtering suchthat the upstream signals can travel together with the downstreamsignals through the coax distribution network, but can be separated forproper handling through the node.

FIG. 32 shows an exemplary resulting receiver system block diagram.

FIG. 33 shows one embodiment of the digital fiber transmission systembetween a head end 1000 and a node 1010 that is suitable for inclusionwithin existing hybrid fiber/coax networks. The analog outputs of theedge QAM units 1020, the CMTS 1030 and any other RF sources 1031 arecombined together with in an RF combining network 1040 in the head end1000 of the system. These components may be referred to as the RF Feed,for purposes of identification. The analog output of the RF Feed isprovided to a transmitter system 1050, which may be one as previouslydescribed in FIGS. 8-18, where the analog output is sampled andserialized for digital transmission to the fiber 1060. Once the opticalsignal is received at the node 1010, the receiver system 1070, which maybe one as previously described in FIGS. 25-32, converts the digital bitstream back into the RF spectrum that existed at the input to thetransmitter system. Once the received signal is converted back into ananalog RF spectrum, it may be split by RF splitter 1080 and amplified toserve any number of output ports 1090 for distribution. In the case of aprimary node, this often includes four outputs. In the case of a“mini-bridger” amplifier which has been converted to a node, this couldbe a single RF output. Such a node may be located on a pole, on a line,in a pedestal, in an underground enclosure, and/or inside of a building.If additional signals are also traveling on the same fiber, additionaloptical WDM filtering, blocking, multiplexing and/or demultiplexing maybe included. A use for this class of embodiment would be to enablelonger head end to node links such as may be required when a number ofhead ends or hubs are consolidated. In this case, a single digitaltransmission system can provide identical content to multiple RF feeds.

Referring to FIG. 34, another embodiment of the digital fibertransmission system is illustrated suitable for including together withexisting hybrid fiber/coax networks. In this exemplary case, two RFFeeds 1100 may be included. These RF feeds 1100 may include contentdifferent from one another or they may include a combination of somecontent that is different and some content that is identical (typicallyreferred to as broadcast content). For example, the same content may bea video feed of one or more channels. These RF feeds 1100 are each sentto their own independent transmitter system 1110 and 1120, respectively,where each are separately sampled and converted into serial digital bitstreams. The two serial digital bit streams may travel down separatefibers, or they may be operated at different wavelengths and may becombined a combiner 1130 using, for example, either an optical powercombiner or an optical WDM coupler in order to use a single fiber. Atthe node 1010, the two optical signals are provided to associatedreceiver systems 1050 and 1060, respectively. In the case where thesignals are traveling on separate fibers, each receiver system would beconnected to the appropriate fiber. In the case where both signals aretraveling on the same fiber, an optical WDM demultiplexer 1140, forexample, may be included to separate the signals. The receiver systems1050 and 1060 convert the optical digital bit streams back into RFspectrums where they can be split and amplified by RF splitters 1170 and1180, respectively, if desired, for distribution. The number of RFoutputs 1190 may be selected based upon the node topology. The tworeceivers 1150 and 1160 in the configuration illustrated in FIG. 34 donot need to each serve the same number of RF ports. Depending upon howimbalanced the node port loading is, it may be desirable to have onereceiver serve a single port and have a second receiver serve theremaining three ports. This node 1010 may be located on a pole, on aline, in a pedestal, in an underground enclosure, and/or inside of abuilding. If additional signals are also traveling on the same fiber,additional optical WDM filtering, blocking, multiplexing, and/ordemultiplexing may be included. The optical WDM demultiplexer may beinside the fiber node or outside the fiber node in a separate enclosure,such as a fiber optic splice enclosure. A use case for this class ofembodiment would be to enable longer head end to node links such as maybe required when a number of head ends or hubs are consolidated. In thiscase, dual digital transmission systems can provide two independentcontent feeds, each of which are then split between two (or more) RFfeeds.

Referring to FIG. 35, another embodiment of the digital fibertransmission system is illustrated suitable for including together withexisting hybrid fiber/coax networks. In this embodiment, a set of fourtransmitter systems 1210 are included together with four RF Feeds 1200.These four RF feeds 1200 may each include content different from oneanother or they may consist of a combination of some content that isdifferent and some content that is identical (typically referred to asbroadcast content). Each of these RF feeds 1200 are each sent to aseparate transmitter system 1210 where each is sampled and convertedinto a corresponding serial digital bit stream. The four optical outputsmay travel down separate fibers, or they may be operated at differentwavelengths and may be combined at combiner 1220, for example, usingeither an optical power combiner or an optical WDM coupler in order touse a single fiber 1060. At the node 1010, the optical signals areprovided to respective receiver systems 1240. In the case where thesignals are traveling on separate fibers, each receiver system would beconnected to the appropriate fiber. In the case where the signals aretraveling on the same fiber, an optical WDM demultiplexer 1230, forexample, may be used to separate the signals. Each of the receiversystems 1240 convert the optical digital bit streams back intocorresponding RF spectrums where each may be amplified for distributionon RF outputs 1250. The node 1010 could be located on a pole, on a line,in a pedestal, in an underground enclosure, and/or inside of a building.If additional signals are also traveling on the same fiber, additionaloptical WDM filtering, blocking, multiplexing and/or demultiplexing maybe used.

Referring to FIG. 36, another embodiment of the digital fibertransmission system is illustrated suitable for including together withexisting hybrid fiber/coax networks. In this embodiment, two RF Feeds1300 are illustrated. The RF feeds 1300 may include content differentfrom one another or they may consist of a combination of some contentthat is different and some content that is identical (typically referredto as broadcast content). These feeds 1300 are each sent to anassociated one of two transmitters 1310 and 1320, respectively; onebeing legacy analog transmitter 1320 and the other being a transmittersystem 1310 such as one described in FIGS. 8-18. There may be one ormore additional analog transmitters 1320 and/or transmitter systems1310. The two transmitter outputs are operated at different wavelengthsand combined by combiner 1330, for example, using either an optical WDMcoupler or an optical power combiner. As illustrated, there may bemultiple nodes 1340 and 1350 which are provided signals by a singletrunk fiber (which may be separated into multiple partitions) and eachof these nodes 1340 and 1350 may be a mixture of standard analog nodesand digital receiver nodes. As illustrated, the trunk fiber 1060 runs tothe first fiber node 1340 where a WDM demux 1360, for example, stripsoff the analog wavelengths and feeds that signal into a legacy analogreceiver 1370 where it is converted into an RF waveform and split by RFsplitter 1380 for distribution among RF outputs 1390. The remainingsignals continue down the trunk fiber 1060 until the second node 1350 isreached. At the second node 1350, another optical WDM demultiplexer1400, for example, strips off the second wavelength which in this caseis a digital signal. This digital signal is provided to a receiversystem 1410 such as the ones described in FIGS. 25-32, where the digitalsignal is converted back to an RF spectrum and split by RF splitter 1420for distribution among RF outputs 1430. As with the first node 1340, theremainder of the optical signals, if any, may continue along the trunkfiber 1060 to further nodes. A use case for this class of embodimentwould be to enable head end to node links using digital transmissionsfor some (new) nodes while allowing existing analog nodes to continueoperating.

Referring to FIG. 37, another embodiment of the digital fibertransmission system is illustrated suitable for including together withexisting hybrid fiber/coax networks. In this embodiment, two RF Feeds1500 are illustrated, for example. Each of these RF feeds 1500 mayinclude content different from one another or they may consist of acombination of some content that is different and some content that isidentical (typically referred to as broadcast content). These feeds 1500are each provided to their own transmitter system where one is a legacyanalog transmitter 1510 and the other is a digital transmitter system1520. There may be additional analog transmitters and/or digitaltransmitter systems together with corresponding RF Feeds. The outputs ofthe two transmitters 1510 and 1520 are provided with differentnon-overlapping wavelengths and are combined by combiner 1530 usingeither an optical WDM coupler or an optical power combiner, for example.The combined optical signals travel over a fiber 1060 to the fiber node1010 where an optical WDM demultiplexer 1540, for example, is used toseparate the wavelengths. Each optical wavelength is sent to itsappropriate digital receiver 1550 or analog receiver 1560 where it issplit by a respective RF splitter 1570 and amplified for distributionalong RF outputs 1580. The number of RF outputs may depend upon thespecific node topology. The two receivers 1550 and 1560, as illustrated,do not need to each serve the same number of RF ports, if desired.Depending upon how imbalanced the node port loading is, it may bedesirable to have one receiver serve a single port and have a secondreceiver serve the remaining three ports. The node 1010 could be locatedon a pole, on a line, in a pedestal, in an underground enclosure, and/orinside of a building. If additional signals are also traveling on thesame fiber 1060, additional optical WDM filtering, blocking,multiplexing and/or demultiplexing may be included. A use for this classof embodiment would be to enable head end to node links using digitaltransmissions for some services, while allowing legacy services tocontinue using analog transmission. This would simplify the transitionto digital.

Referring to FIG. 38, another embodiment of the digital fibertransmission system is illustrated suitable for including together withexisting hybrid fiber/coax networks. In this embodiment, two partial RFfeeds 1600 and 1610 are created. Partial RF feed 1610 is one for legacyanalog transmission and partial RF feed 1600 is for digitaltransmission. The two RF spectrums from the partial RF feeds 1600 and1610 are created such that they do not overlap in frequency with oneanother. Also, the two RF spectrums do not necessarily include all thefrequencies of the available spectrum. Each of these partial spectrumsis provided to an associated legacy analog transmitter 1630 or digitaltransmitter system 1620, respectively. The respective outputs of the twotransmitters may travel on different fibers, or they may operate atdifferent wavelengths and be combined onto a single fiber using anoptical combiner 1640 such as an optical WDM multiplexer or an opticalpower combiner, for example. The signals travel down the fiber 00 to thefiber node 1010. If separate fibers are used, then the appropriate fiberis connected to the appropriate receiver (e.g., receiver system andanalog system). If a single fiber is used, then an optical WDMdemultiplexer 1650 may be used to separate the two wavelengths andprovide them each to the appropriate receivers (e.g., digital receiversystem 1660 and analog receiver system 1670). The receiver system 1660converts the digital bit stream back into an RF spectrum and the legacyanalog receiver system 1670 converts the analog optical wavelength backinto an electrical RF spectrum. The two RF waveforms are then combinedwith one another in an RF combiner 1680. This combination may occur, forexample, using either an RF power combiner or RF filter combiners suchas an RF diplexer. An RF filter combiner tends to reduce signal loss,while an RF power combiner tends to provide flexibility for channelallocation in the frequency domain. Once the RF signals are combined,they may be split by an RF splitter 1690 and amplified for distribution.A use for this class of embodiment would be to create channel line upsat a node from a mixture of analog digital transmissions. This could beused to combine an existing analog broadcast system with a digitalnarrowcast system for example.

Referring to FIG. 39, another embodiment of the digital fibertransmission system is illustrated suitable for including together withexisting hybrid fiber/coax networks. An exemplary system includes fourtransmitter systems 1710 together with four RF feeds 1700 in a head end1000. Also, additional wavelengths may be combined and “simultaneously”transmitted down the same fiber, if desired. Additional wavelengths fromadditional transmitters may be combined and transmitted down the fibersimultaneously. These feeds 1700 may include content different from oneanother or they may consist of a combination of some content that isdifferent and some content that is identical (typically referred to asbroadcast content). The four optical outputs may travel down separatefibers, or they may be operated at different wavelengths and may becombined at combiner 1720, for example, using either an optical powercombiner or an optical WDM coupler in order to use a single fiber 1060.The fiber 1060 carrying all of the wavelengths, for example, runs fromthe head end 1000 to a first fiber node 1730. At the first fiber node1730, the signal at the appropriate wavelength is received. In the caseof a segmented fiber node, signals on multiple wavelengths could bereceived. This wavelength carrying the digital bit stream is sent to thereceiver system where it is converted back into an RF spectrum fordistribution. Either, all of the signal wavelengths, or just theremaining signal wavelengths, continue on down the trunk fiber 1060 tothe successive nodes 1740, 1750, 1760, etc. at which selected signalwavelengths are received. This process may repeat over and over againdown the trunk fiber 1060. A use for this class of embodiment would beto enable head end to node links using digital transmissions for longdistances with multiple wavelengths. This enables nodes to be connectedin series over a long distance thus saving pulling additional fiber. Anobvious use case for this would be the conversion of amplifiers to nodesas serving areas are subdivided.

FIG. 40 shows another embodiment of the digital fiber transmissionsystem suitable for including together with existing hybrid fiber/coaxnetworks. In this embodiment, an RF Feed 1800 is sent to a transmittersystem 1810. The output of the transmitter is sent to an optical powersplitter 1820. Based upon the link budget an extremely large number ofoptical splits can be served by the single transmitter 1810,particularly when Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) are used tofurther extend the link budget. Also, the optical splitter is notrequired to have symmetrical outputs. Asymmetric, tap style splittersmay be used, if desired. Each optical splitter output is connected to arespective node 1010 by respective fibers 1060 where the digital bitstream is processed by respective receivers 1830 to convert the signalsback into an RF spectrum for splitting and distribution by RF splitters1840 and RF outputs 1850. The receivers 1830 may preferably be any ofthose described in FIGS. 8-24. A use for this class of embodiment wouldbe to enable a single digital transmission to support multiple head endto node links using an optical splitter. This provides a very costeffective solution to signal distribution to multiple nodes where eachnode has the same content.

FIG. 41 shows another embodiment of the digital fiber transmissionsystem suitable for including together with existing hybrid fiber/coaxnetworks. The architecture includes a single transmitter spectrum thatis shared across multiple analog spectrums. In this case, multiplepartial RF feeds 1900 are created such that none of the feeds directedtowards analog transmitters 1920 are overlapping in frequency with theRF feed that is sent to the shared transmitter system 1910, which maypreferably be any of those described in FIGS. 8-24. The partial feeds1900 may be completely unique or they may consist of a combination ofsome unique content and some identical (typically referred to asBroadcast) content. In the head end 1000, the analog transmission pathremains virtually unchanged, with the exception that an optical WDM orpower combiner may be used in order to combine the legacy analogwavelengths with the new transmitter system wavelengths. In parallelwith the analog transmission paths, a separate RF feed may be providedto transmitter system 1910 where it is sampled and digitized fortransmission. The output of the transmitter system 1910 may be sent toan optical power splitter and the outputs of the optical power splitterare sent to an optical combining network 1930. A set of fibers 1060which each contain an analog signal with a distinct wavelength, and acopy of the signal from the transmitter system 1910 with its owndistinct wavelength, are sent out to fiber nodes 1940 where eachincludes an optical WDM demultiplexer 1950 used to separate the analogand digital wavelengths, with each being sent to an appropriate receiver1960 or 1970. The receiver 1960 may preferably be a digital receiversuch as any of those described in FIGS. 25-33 while the receiver 1970may be any appropriate analog receiver. Then, the two complementary RFspectrums are combined, and then split and amplified for distribution. Ause for this class of embodiment would be to enable a single digitaltransmission carrying the broadcast signals for the system to becombined with individual analog based per node narrowcast signals tocreate a full spectrum line up on a per node basis.

FIG. 42 shows another embodiment of the digital fiber transmissionsystem suitable for including together with existing hybrid fiber/coaxnetworks in which a single analog transmitter spectrum is shared acrossmultiple transmission system spectrums. In this case, multiple partialRF feeds 2000 are created such that none of the feeds that are directedtowards the digital transmission systems 2010 (which may preferably beany of those described in FIGS. 8-24) overlap in frequency with the RFfeed that is sent to a shared analog transmitter 2020. The partial feeds2000 may be completely unique or they may consist of a combination ofsome unique content and some identical (typically referred to asBroadcast) content. In the head end, the output of the analogtransmitter 2020 may be sent to an optical power splitter 2030 so thatit can be shared across multiple transmission systems. The analog signalat its individual wavelength is combined with the respective outputs oftransmission systems 2010 using one or more optical combiners 2040 suchas, for example, an optical WDM or optical power combiner. A set offibers which each contain respective signals at distinct digitalwavelengths along with a copy of the analog signal at its distinctwavelength are sent out to fiber nodes 2050 where, for example, eachincludes an optical WDM demultiplexer 2060 used to separate the analogand digital wavelengths. Each signal is sent to an appropriate one of adigital receiver system 2070, such as any of those described in FIGS.25-33, and an analog receiver system 2080. Then, the two complementaryRF signals may be combined, split, and amplified for distribution. A usefor this class of embodiment would be to enable a single analogtransmission carrying the broadcast signals for the system to becombined with individual digital per node narrowcast signals to create afull spectrum line up on a per node basis. It is in effect the inverseof FIG. 41.

FIG. 43 shows another embodiment of the digital fiber transmissionsystem suitable for including together with existing hybrid fiber/coaxnetworks, in which transmission systems may be used to bypass a hub orto perform a hub-to-node conversion. In this case RF feeds 2100 are sentto the transmitter systems 2110, which may preferably be any of thosedescribed in FIGS. 8-24, where they are sampled and digitized fortransmission. Receiver systems 2110 may preferably be any of thosedescribed in FIGS. 8-24. Many transmitter system outputs can be combinedonto a single fiber using, for example, an optical power combiner or aWDM multiplexer 2120, if they operate at different wavelengths. Thedigital wavelengths are delivered to the child hub or the node used inthe hub to node conversion where they can be separated using, forexample, an optical WDM demultiplexer 2130. Once separated, the digitalbit streams can be converted back into RF spectrums by receiver systems2140, after which they can either be fed into standard analogtransmitters 2151 (or converted once again back into digital bit streamsusing additional transmitter systems 2150) and distributed to the fibernodes. In addition, outputs from the optical demultiplexer 2130 in thechild hub or node can be sent directly to fiber nodes 2170 either onindependent fibers, or recombined and re-split using optical WDMmultiplexers/demultiplexers 2160, optical power combiners, and/oroptical power splitters 2180. A use for this class of embodiment wouldbe to enable a node to act as a “virtual hub” to distribute signals tomultiple nodes further downstream. This can then enable physical hubconsolidation.

FIG. 44 shows another embodiment of the digital fiber transmissionsystem suitable for including together with existing hybrid fiber/coaxnetworks, in which a transmission system may service a legacy fiber nodewith an analog downstream optical receiver. In this example, RF feed2200 is connected to a transmitter system 2210, which may preferably beany of those described in FIGS. 8-24, for distribution to the opticalnetwork. This signal is received by a receiver system 2220 that has beenphysically disassociated with the fiber node 2240 it is serving. Themodified receiver system 2220 converts the digital bit stream back intoan RF spectrum and passes the signal to an analog optical transmitter2230. In this example, the connection between this receiver system 2220and the node 2240 it serves may be very short, in which case theperformance of the analog transmitter does not need to be particularlygood. The analog optical output of receiver 2200 is then connected tothe optical node it is serving, allowing the operator to continue toutilize their existing node base while taking advantage of theadvantages of a transmission system. A use for this class of embodimentwould be to enable a digital transmission to be deployed as an “add on”to existing analog nodes.

FIG. 45 shows another embodiment of a digital fiber transmission systemsuitable for integration with existing hybrid fiber/coax networks, wheremultiple transmitter systems may be utilized to efficiently segment afiber node and drive fiber deeper within the transmission cascade usingamplifier-to-node conversion. RF feeds 2300 are created in the hub orhead end and are connected to independent transmitter systems 2310 whichare operating at different wavelengths. These transmitter outputs arecombined together onto a single fiber using, for example, an optical WDMmultiplexer 2320 or an optical power combiner and are sent down thefiber to the primary node 2330 within the serving area which is going tobe segmented. Often, in cases where many optical wavelengths are beingcombined and separated, an EDFA 2340 will be used to overcome the lossesin the optical WDM couplers and decouplers. In the case of a digital bitstream, such as illustrated, the likelihood of requiring an EDFA 2340and the requirements placed upon the EDFA 2340 is far more relaxed thanin an analog application. The output of the EDFA 2340 (if included) isthen fed into an optical WDM demultiplexer 2350 to separate thewavelengths of the respective signals. In this case, some of the signalsat specified wavelengths are connected to local receiver systems 2360for segmenting the primary node in the system. Other signals at theirown distinct wavelengths are delivered via fiber to new satellite nodes2370 which have been created by converting amplifiers into nodes, or tonew nodes which have been installed to reduce the sizes of the servinggroups per node. A use for this class of embodiment would be to enablesplitting of existing nodes without the need to add additional fiber tothe head end to node link.

FIG. 46 shows an embodiment of a digital fiber transmission systemsuitable for including together with existing hybrid fiber/coaxnetworks. An RF feed 2400 is generated at a head end. The RF feed 2400may typically be a broadcast spectrum that will be shared across a largenumber of end customers. This RF feed 2400 is sent to a transmittersystem 2410 where it is converted into a digital optical bit stream andlaunched into the fiber. The fiber delivers the signal to a partialreceiver system 2430 in a hub/node 2420 where local insertion occursthrough partial RF feeds 2450. FIG. 47 shows one illustrative example ofa partial receiver system 2430. Once the partial receiver system 2430converts the signal from optical to electrical and removes all of itsencoding so that it can be processed digitally, the signal is fed intothe digital summation block 2440. Narrowcast local insertion of partialRF feeds 2450 can either be added from an RF source, converted todigital format with an ADC, or from a digital bit stream source such asGigabit Ethernet. In the case where the narrowcast insertion is providedin an RF form, the RF narrowcast spectrum is sent to one or more partialtransmission systems 2460 which may each comprise an Analog Front End2470 and A/D Converter 2480 as shown in FIG. 48. This output is thensent to the digital summation block 2440. In the case where the localnarrowcast insert is provided in a digital bit stream form, theupconversion systems 2401 receiving the digital data may comprise adigital up conversion block 2490 as illustrated in FIG. 49, and theoutput sent to the digital summation block 2440. The digital conversionclock frequency which is used in the initial transmitter is the same asthe frequency used in the conversion clock used by the A/D Converter2480 in the partial transmission system used for the RF insert. Thissame frequency may be used by the sample generator inside of the digitalup conversion block 2490 in the digital bit stream insert. Inside of thedigital summation block, the samples are broadcast and narrowcast inputsare synchronized, added, and scaled mathematically. The output of thedigital summation block is then sent to a partial transmission system2495. This partial transmission system may be a subset of the fulltransmission systems illustrated in FIGS. 8-24, omitting or bypassingthe ADC or the digital up conversion block as applicable in those fulltransmission systems. FIG. 50 illustrates one example of a partialtransmission system 2495 having a directly modulated transmitter. FIG.51 illustrates one example of a partial transmission system 2495 havingan externally modulated transmitter.

The output of the partial transmission system 2495 may be fed to areceiver system 2435 at a node 2425 downstream from the node 2420.Though the partial transmission system 2495 preferably delivers adigital signal down the fiber by means of optical pulses through lasertransmitters such as those shown in 50 and 51, the partial transmissionsystem 2495 may instead be configured to deliver an RF signal to thenode 2425 through RF output 2445 according to conventional RFtransmission techniques, or may even be configured to deliver anycombination of digital and RF signals, separated by distinct opticalwavelength bands, through the techniques disclosed in FIGS. 36-45. A usefor this class of embodiment would be to enable insertion of signals ata hub or node using digital summation techniques rather than RFcombining. For example a broadcast signal could be transmitted from thehead end over a long distance to a hub where it is combined withnarrowcast signals specific to the serving area. The narrowcast signalsmay originate as either RF or a digital bitstream

The previous examples illustrate numerous deployment scenarios in whichthe methods of the present disclosure may be used. This is not acomplete list and other scenarios can be derived from the basic buildingblocks described.

As can be seen from the foregoing disclosure, one key advantage ofsubstituting digital transmission for analog RF signals is the increasein transmission distance that a CATV signal can travel over fiber optictransmission lines. The approaches described in the foregoing disclosurerequire a high bit rate link when serial digital bit streams are used.In an HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) plant, typically fiber optic cables areused to carry the link from the head end or hub to the fiber node, wherethe optical link is converted into an RF link for coax distribution.While digital links are typically far more tolerant of distortion orimpairment due to spectral dispersion than analog links, they are notimmune from such distortion or impairment. Also, as the data rate of thedigital link increases, the penalty due to dispersion increases at aneven greater rate due to a combination of shorter bit time and greaterspectra spreading.

In addition, as application of the teachings of the foregoing disclosureenables operators to carry a larger number of optical signals overlonger fiber links, the ability to compensate for the effects ofdispersion become more important. Typical approaches to compensate fordispersion involve manual compensation, which is not alwayspractical—particularly when dealing with large numbers of access sidelinks that may not have accurate build topology information, which istypical with core or metro fiber optic networks. Thus it would begreatly beneficial to provide a more effective approach forautomatically compensating for the negative effects of dispersion on anoptical signal.

FIG. 52 shows the optical spectrum of a theoretical “zero dispersion”signal when spectral spreading due to the modulation has been ignored.As can be seen in the graph marked (a) there is only a singletheoretical wavelength present. The graph marked (b) shows the timedomain waveform at the point where the signal is launched into thefiber, which in this case is a simple pulse train. The graph marked (c)shows the time domain waveform after it has traveled through the fiberacross a distance which would show measureable dispersion at the chosenbit rate. In this case, because the signal contains only a singlewavelength, the signal at the destination shows no dispersion.

FIG. 53 shows a theoretical bi-modal dispersion signal, where the term“bi-modal” refers to the fact that the laser emits at two wavelengths,as can be seen in the graph marked (a). The graph marked (b) shows thetime domain waveform at the point where the signal is launched into thefiber, which in this case again is a simple pulse train. The graphmarked (c) shows the time domain waveform after it has traveled throughthe fiber across a distance which would show measureable dispersion atthe chosen bit rate. In this case, because the two wavelengths whichcompose the signal travel at slightly different speeds through thefiber, the signal at the destination looks like the original time domainsignal plus an identical copy which is slightly delayed in time. Thefurther apart in wavelength the two modes of the laser, the greater thetime delay between the two signals at the destination, and consequentlythe more severe the dispersion penalty. In addition, the relativepropagation delay through the fiber for the two wavelengths is notdependent upon the bit rate of the transmitted signal, therefore theshorter the bit time, the less tolerant the signal of interest will beof dispersion effects through the fiber.

The scenarios described with respect to FIGS. 52 and 53 describe thetheoretical relationship between bit rate and dispersion penalty due toa fixed amount of spectral spreading. In reality, bit rate and spectralspreading are linked and combine to create an even greater sensitivityto dispersion penalty.

When a laser's output light is modulated, the carrier wavelength spreadsbased upon the frequency transformation of the modulating waveform. FIG.54 shows the frequency spectrum of two different PRBS (Pseudo Random BitStream) patterns. A PRBS pattern is a commonly used simulation of actualsignal content as would exist in a commercial system. The lowerspectrum, represented by the dotted line, is a PRBS pattern at a nominalbit rate at “N Gbps”. The upper spectrum, represented by the solid line,is a PRBS pattern at a bit rate twice that of the nominal spectrum.Furthermore, the frequency spectrum of the pattern which is operating attwice the bit rate is also twice as large.

FIG. 55 shows a plot of the upper and lower spectrums of FIG. 54modulated on a laser wavelength plot. In this plot, the spectralspreading is simply a Sinc² function of the modulation waveform centeredabout the nominal wavelength of the laser (λ₀). The higher the data rateof the PRBS pattern, the more spectral spreading is observed. Thiscreates a particularly challenging problem from the point of view ofsystem implementation because as the data rate of the link is increased,a dispersion penalty occurs twice. The first penalty is due to thegreater wavelength spreading. This means a larger delta in the relativewavelength propagation delay. The second penalty is due to the shorterbit time, which makes the message signal less tolerant of waveformdegradation due to dispersion.

The dispersion power penalty can be approximately asP _(D)=5 log(1+2π(BDLσ)²)where D is the dispersion coefficient of the link, L is the linkdistance, is the spectra spreads and the B is the transmission datarate. Without the compensation, the fiber link distance is limited by

$L < \frac{8\lambda^{2}D}{\pi\; c\; B^{2}}$

With optical duobinary format transmission, the optical spectra spreadcan be reduced to ¼ and thus dispersion tolerance will increase fourtimes. For system implementation, pre-chirping the modulator and makingit negatively chirped so that less dispersion compensation may also beneeded. Pre-chirping the modulator and making it negatively chirped mayalso be necessary for an over-clocked transmission system, where anarrow band spectrum is being transported. This advantage can mainly beachieved by receiver equalization, not transmitter equalization

The dispersion-caused eye closure can also be a result of transmitterchirp. The chirp refers to the instantaneous frequency shift. For adirectly modulated laser, the chirp is usually positive, which means thefront of wave form has low frequency while the rear of the waveform hashigher frequency. Due to the dispersion of the fiber, the waveform willbe spread quickly. For an external modulated laser (EML), the chirp canbe designed as either positive or negative. An EML used in the 10 Gbpsand 28 Gbps transmitter can also be used to make chirp positive ornegative. A negative chirped system is preferred.

The present disclosure describes the use of a digital bit streamtransmission system to deliver broadband RF signals in a number ofdifferent fiber optic network segments. These network segments aretypically described as “core”, “metro” or “access”. As CATV operatorsmove to drive fiber deeper into their networks, and also work toconsolidate their Head Ends and Hubs, there is a need to combine moresignals at different respective optical wavelengths per fiber and tosimultaneously transmit these signals over greater and greaterdistances. The result will be for dispersion to become a majorlimitation of the distances that these signals can travel and the fibertopology data, which would be used to calculate the distance that thefiber optic signal must travel, will become less accurate. In addition,the number of fiber optic links and wavelengths that will need to becompensated will increase exponentially. A manual trial and errorapproach could be used, but it would be unnecessarily cumbersome.

There are a few types of commonly used dispersion compensationtechnologies. The first one is using dispersion compensation fiber witha dispersion response that is the inverse of the fiber used in thephysical plant. Thus the total dispersion can be minimized. The secondis the fiber Bragg compensation; the third is the etalon. Both fiberBragg grating (FBG) and etalon can be made tunable. The automaticdispersion compensation can be implemented by tunable Bragg grating,tunable etalon filter and electronic compensating methods. In addition,the electronic dispersion compensation can be made tunable and adaptive.

FIGS. 56 and 57 generally show a novel automated dispersion compensationtechnique for a fiber-optic network. Referring specifically to FIG. 56,a head end chassis 2500 preferably communicates with at least one node2510. The head end chassis 2500 preferably includes a chassis managementmodule 2520, a transmitter 2530, and a receiver 2540. The transmitter2530 and receiver 2540 are preferably digital. Similarly, the node 2510preferably includes a node management module 2550 along with a receiver2560 and transmitter 2470, again both preferably digital. Thetransmitters and receivers of the head end chassis 2500 and the node1510, respectively, may preferably be any of those shown in FIGS. 8-32.

The head end chassis 2500 and node 2510 are preferably configured toexecute an auto-range mode that automatically determines the distancethat an optical signal travels between the head end chassis 2500 and thenode 2510, and on that basis, automatically correct for dispersion overthat distance. The auto ranging mode may require that the transmitterand receiver have a common path to pass data. The auto-rangingprocedure, which can be implemented in many different architectures, isgenerally illustrated in FIG. 57. In step 2600, the data rate of thelink is configured to a much lower rate than the actual processing rate,i.e. any data rate where the chromatic dispersion penalty is notsignificant, and the transmitters and receivers on both the head endchassis 2500 and the node 2510 still work well, with or without thespecial configurations disclosed below.

This lower data rate may be achieved by many different software routinesexecuted between the head end chassis 2500 and the node 2510, asillustrated by FIGS. 58-60. FIG. 58, for example, illustrates a routinewhere the head end chassis management module 2520 initiates the low datarate transmission. Similarly, FIG. 59 illustrates a routine where thetransmitter 2530 initiates the low data rate transmission while FIG. 60illustrates a routine where the node management module 2550 initiatesthe low data rate transmission. This reduction in data rate can beaccomplished by using the same system clock rate, but by creating atransmit bit pattern that has extended strings of logic ones and zerossuch that the bit pattern appears to be a much lower rate binary signal.

After the low data rate has been achieved, the routine proceeds to step2610 where either the transmitter 2530 in the head end chassis 2500 orthe transmitter 2570 in the node 2510 sends a message to the receiver onthe other end of the transmission link, i.e. either receiver 2560 orreceiver 2540. At the same time, a counter is started. In step 2620,when the message is received at the destination, a response isimmediately sent, also at a much lower data rate than the actualoperating rate and preferably at the same rate that the message from thesource was sent. In step 2630, when the response is received at thesource (i.e. the originator of the message for which the response wassent), the counter is stopped and the round trip propagation time iscalculated.

Steps 2610 to 2630 may be achieved by many different software routinesexecuted between the head end chassis 2500 and the node 2510, asillustrated by FIGS. 61-63. FIG. 61, for example, illustrates a routinewhere the transmitter 2530 performs these steps. Similarly, FIG. 62illustrates a routine where the head end chassis management module 2520performs these steps while FIG. 63 illustrates a routine where the nodemanagement module 2550 performs them.

It should be understood that, in the foregoing discussion, though thesoftware routines were described using the assistance of managementmodules in the head end chassis 2500 and the node 2510, respectively,the involvement of these management modules is not required as long assome form of communication channel between the transmitter and receiverin the head end equipment, and data passing between the transmitter andreceiver in the node can be achieved.

Again referring to FIG. 57, in step 2640, once the round trippropagation time has been calculated, an appropriate dispersioncompensation filter is applied to the transmission signal. The filteraims to shift the zero dispersion window (or minimum dispersion window)such that it is centered on the receive window based upon the calculateddelay through the fiber. This process may, in some embodiments, besemi-automatic, in which case the system would indicate to an operatorhow much dispersion compensation needs to be provided, or in otherembodiments may be fully automatic, where the system itself adjusts orswitches in the proper amount of dispersion compensation.

A fully automatic dispersion compensation system may be implemented inseveral different ways. Referring to FIG. 64, a first approach is to usean optical switch network 2650 which is controlled by the digitalcontrol system 2660 in a transmitter in order to switch in the properamount of dispersion compensation, based upon what is calculated by thedelay calculation. The number of compensation elements 2670 included inthe switch network, and the granularity of each element may vary fromcase to case based upon the network implementation. The elements 2670which are switched in may be fixed or tunable, and may be fiber based orgrating based. Furthermore, though the elements 2670 depicted in FIG. 64are arranged in parallel, other configurations may arrange such elementsin series with intervening switches to selectively apply a desiredamount of compensation.

Referring to FIG. 65, a second approach for fully automated dispersioncompensation is to use a tunable dispersion control element 2680 whichcan be controlled by the control subsystem 2660. Referring to FIG. 66, athird approach for fully automated dispersion compensation combines thefirst two options together into a hybrid solution that includes anoptical switch network 2560 controlled by the digital control system2660. This hybrid solution switches between a plurality of variablecompensation elements 2680, where again the granularity of each elementmay vary from case to case based upon the network implementation. Yet afourth option for automatic dispersion compensation is to use digitalpre-distortion of the signal prior to electrical-to-optical conversion.This approach is easily understood from a system diagram point of viewand is not illustrated.

One implementation is to execute auto-ranging mode during initial setup.When this is being done, the configuration program may first build atemporary round trip of low data rate link between the source and nodeas shown in FIG. 57. Then the program starts the auto-ranging program tofind the fiber distance and calculate the total dispersion. Thirdly, aproper dispersion compensation filter module can be installed orswitched on, or tuned to the proper dispersion compensation as shown,for example, in any of FIGS. 63-65. Finally, the program shall terminateitself by setting the node and head end transmitters and receivers tothe operation mode.

The auto-ranging dispersion compensation technique disclosed hereinassumes known fiber (for example G652) with deterministic dispersionproperties. For example, G652 fiber has a zero dispersion wavelength λ₀between 1300 nm to 1324 nm, and a chromatic dispersion coefficient S₀ ofless than 0.092 ps/(nm²*km). The uncertainty of the zero dispersionwavelength λ₀ results in 92% accuracy while a better than normaldispersion coefficient may result in over-compensation. This disclosuremay be used in any other point-to-point fiber communication, but successdepends on the knowledge of the dispersion properties of the fiberdeployed.

In order to facilitate the low data rate link between the head end andnode, the transmitter and receiver in both ends may or may not need tohave a special configuration. For example, in the transmitters of FIGS.17 and 18, to implement the auto-ranging and dispersion compensationroutine, the in-band management insertion unit 560 may preferably becapable of sending a message down the signal path while ignoring theoutput of the ADC 550, while the FEC encoder 570 and the ODB precodershould be 600 turned off during the routine (as well as the 64b/66bencoder 590, if desired). Also, if necessary, the CDR retimer 610 mayneed to be reconfigured.

Referring to FIG. 67, voice, video and data service signals propagatedover hybrid fiber coax (HFC) networks from a head end 2700 are typicallya combination of analog signals encoded using Quadrature AmplitudeModulation by, e.g. EdgeQAM modulators 2710 or other QAM modulators andare combined together in an RF combining network 2720 into a singlespectrum using Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM). This spectrum isthen propagated along the fiber optic signal path using an analogoptical transmitter 2730 that modulates the amplitude of a laser orother light-emitting device. Accordingly, a large variety of equipmentis required in order to create all the signals that will ultimately becombined onto a single transmission spectrum. Some of these signals maybe Broadcast QAMs, which are generally shared across many servinggroups. Other signals may be Narrowcast QAMs, which are unique to aparticular serving group. Each of the channels is assigned a specificfrequency band in which to operate (hence the reference to a televisionor broadcast “channel”). By placing each channel in a unique band of thefrequency spectrum, each can be transmitted simultaneously with minimalinterference to the other channels. The terminal device at the locationof the customer, whether a TV set, a “set-top” box, or a cable modem,can select a given channel to demodulate and present to the customer.

Given this architecture, the RF combining network 2720 combines, in theanalog domain, the respective signals from each of the various sourcesthat it receives as an input. FIGS. 68 and 69 schematically show how atypical RF combining network combines signals received from severalsources. While conceptually a simple addition of signals at multiplefrequencies, this type of combining network presents a number ofchallenges to the implementer of an HFC network. RF power combinerstypically present 3.5 dB of loss for every 2×1 combination. This highlevel of loss, combined with the variability in the number of RF sourcesand the potential combination permutations, means that the equipmentproviding these RF signals needs to be capable of a significant outputdynamic range. In addition, this combining network is a major potentialpoint of interfering signal ingress, and requires skilled maintenance inorder to make sure that all of the connections are properly tightenedand that all unused ports are properly terminated. Also, since the losswill vary from port to port on every combiner and through each of thecable connections, careful RF signal level balancing is required.Another major concern with RF combining of signals is the challenge ofadding or changing the services that are being combined together. Often,adding new services will require disruptive changes to this RF combiningnetwork which will potentially affect the quality of the other serviceswhich are sharing this combining network. In practice, and as can beeasily seen from FIGS. 67 and 68, this RF combining network is actuallya rat's nest of cables and passive splitters that are connected togetherand locked in a cabinet inside of a Head End or Hub.

Referring back to FIGS. 8, 17, and 18, the present disclosure shows anew transmitter that receives a signal from an RF combining network andprocesses it for subsequent propagation down a fiber optic cable. Asshown in FIG. 70, as an initial step in this processing, the signalreceived from the RF combining network 2750 in head end 2740 undergoesDirect Sample Conversion (DSC) through module 2760 before processing bythe remainder 2770 of the transmitter. Referring to FIG. 71, DSCinvolves passing the combined RF signal first through an Analog FrontEnd (AFE) 2780 and an Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) 2790. The AFE2780 provides impedance transforms etc. to prepare the signal fordigital conversion, and also preferably adjusts the composite signalstrength of the output of the RF combining network so that substantiallythe full dynamic range, or frequency scale, of the input of the ADC isused. The ADC samples the output of the AFE and converts it to digitalcodewords.

Preferably, the DSC module 2760 and shown in FIG. 71 may be usedregardless of the method ultimately used to modulate the optical signalprovided down the fiber path to the node. For example, either thetransmitter shown in FIG. 17 (a transmitter with direct lasermodulation) or the transmitter of FIG. 18 (a transmitter with anexternally modulated laser) may be used in the system of FIG. 70. Itshould be understood that, with respect to FIG. 18, the ODB precoder andODB precoder may be omitted if desired (an externally modulated coherentlaser transmitter). In addition, the EML transmitter partially shown inFIG. 73 may be used in the system of FIG. 70. The EML transmitter ofFIG. 73 is generally similar to that shown in FIG. 18, except instead ofusing a Mach-Zehnder modulator to selectively pass or cancel the outputof a laser, the EML transmitter of FIG. 72 uses a second stage, such asthe P/N junction depicted for example, to selectively absorb light froma laser at a level proportional to the modulation signal.

Referring back to FIGS. 21, 23, and 24, the present disclosure showsanother new transmitter that receives a signal and processes it forsubsequent propagation down a fiber optic cable. Unlike the transmittersof FIGS. 8, 17, and 18 which use DSC to initially process the signalreceived from the head end, the transmitters of FIGS. 21, 23, and 24each use a process called Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS), which isspecifically shown in FIG. 72. DDS is a procedure that up-converts aseries of synthesized individual channels, or groups of channels, in amanner that allows for conversion of the digital signals back intoanalog format, but at the frequency desired for the channel plan on theanalog transmission plant. For example, a DDS module 2800 may comprise aJ.83 QAM encoder 2810 and an OFDM encoder 2820 arranged in parallel sothat each is capable of receiving an input signal (typicallyrepresenting a great number of channels of CATV content, ancillary data,etc) from a head end, based on which modulation format is desired at thenode for the encoded channel. After encoding, the encoded signal is sentto a digital up-converter (DUC) 2830 for up-conversion.

DDS may initially seem less intuitive than the DSC approach. The inputis typically some form of conventional digital bit stream such asGigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The data stream is sent to themodulation encoder where it is encoded into the spectral representationof the modulated RF waveform at a virtual baseband carrier frequency.The modulation encoding scheme used is not important, so long as itmatches the encoding scheme expected by the network termination devicesuch as the set top box or cable modem.

Once the video and data signals have been encoded in the appropriatemodulation format, the next step is digital up-conversion which createsa digital representation of the final RF spectrum that is intended to begenerated. Typically, digital up-conversion is used in the applicationof an EdgeQAM, where the up-converter is used to locally create the RFspectrum. In the case of an EdgeQAM, the DUC is co-located with theDigital to Analog Converter (DAC) and the DUC directly feeds the DAC.However, with respect to the transmitters disclosed in the presentapplication, this is not the case as the DAC is potentially locatedhundreds of kilometers away.

Again, the DDS module shown in FIG. 72 may be used regardless of themethod ultimately used to modulate the optical signal provided down thefiber path to the node. For example, either the transmitter shown inFIG. 23 (a transmitter with direct laser modulation) or the transmitterof FIG. 24 (a transmitter with an externally modulated laser) may beused in the system of FIG. 72. It should be understood that, withrespect to FIG. 24, the ODB precoder and ODB encoder may be omitted ifdesired (for example with an externally modulated coherent lasertransmitter). In addition, the EML transmitter partially shown in FIG.73 may be used in the system of FIG. 72.

Referring back to FIG. 22 and the accompanying portions of the presentspecification, a DUC can conceptually be viewed as a processor thatreceives one modulated sequence of digital codewords and produces adifferent sequence of codewords modulated to a new frequency band, bymultiplying the input codewords with a locally-generated representationof an oscillator. This is directly analogous to heterodyne mixing in theanalog domain. The new codewords are then processed so that unwantedmathematical mixing products are filtered and removed through digitalprocessing. The final codewords represent the relative power level ofthe RF spectrum at the precise intervals of the conversion clock.

The following disclosure shows a variation of the DSC and DDS circuitrythat perform digital conversion and combination to produce digital codewords that represent the signals to be combined within the system. Thesecode words are the new signal domain converted into the digital domain.Despite the complexity of the digital processing disclosed below, thisapproach allows for simpler system design and use in actual practice.Since the signals to be added are now in the digital domain, the digitalprocessing subsystem can now manipulate the signals mathematically towherever they need to be placed in the CATV analog spectrum when theyare converted back to the RF domain. In addition, the possibility existsto remove and, if desired, replace existing channels carried on thesystem so that the frequency spectrum can be more efficiently used formultiple channels. The use of digital combining eliminates the existingrequirement of a combining network, simplifying the overall system. TheRF levels ultimately generated can also be adjusted through mathematicalprocessing performed in the digital signal processing circuitry.Finally, more robust and less expensive approaches to digitaltransmission can be used to carry the desired signals to the digitalsignal processing combination point using this technique.

In existing CATV delivery systems, individual TV channels in the olderanalog VSB format are generated individually, with one channel perchassis in a rack. Newer QAM “digital” channels have been generatedsingly per chassis, with channel density per chassis increasing overtime as new products are developed. Almost all existing systems have tocontend with multiple RF channel sources, with a combination of legacyanalog channels, varying packaging density QAM channels, for both videoand cable modem use, as well as some unique signals used in the CATVtransmission spectrum for control and signaling, such as authorizationof video on demand and other set top box services. No one sourcesupplies all the signals used in a CATV system, due to commercial aswell as historical and economic reasons. In order to combine thesesignals into the full RF spectrum, combiner networks as describedearlier are used. If a CATV operator wants to reconfigure the CATVspectrum in any way, somebody must go the CATV transmission site andmanually move cables from one portion of the combiner network toanother. In many cases, the actual configuration of the combiner systemmust be redone. This may require adjusting RF signal levels to besuitable for the new configuration. This is time consuming anddifficult. It is possible to construct a large switching matrix toperform this function, but not only is this expensive and physicallylarge and cumbersome, but accommodating every permutation would beprohibitively expensive and unwieldy.

Referring to FIG. 74, a plurality of inputs 2900 are provided to asystem control block 2910. The inputs 2900 may be categorized into RFinputs 2920 and data inputs 2930. The RF inputs 2920 may comprise anycombination of types of RF sources, such as broadcast sources, out ofband (OOB) sources, proprietary third party signals, etc. as well aslegacy CMTS and analog TV sources. The number of RF inputs 2920 is forillustration only, and can be any number greater or less than thatdepicted. Moreover, two or more RF sources can be combined into a singleRF input prior to feeding into the system control block 2900, if desired(as shown in FIG. 75). The RF inputs 2920 are preferably each routed toa respective DSC module.

The data inputs 2930 can be either from an electrical interface, such aselectrical transceiver, or optical interface, such as GbE or 10G GbE.The number of data inputs 2930 is for illustration only, and can be anynumber greater or less than that depicted. The data inputs 2930 maycontain any content, including video or data. These RF inputs 2900 havebeen traditionally handled by CMTS and Edge QAM. The data inputs 2930are directly synthesized by DDS modules 2950 and routed through highspeed digital connections.

After DDS or DSC processing, the respective signals from the RF inputs2920 and data inputs 2930 are routed through high speed digitalconnections and combined by a summation network 2960, comprisingindividual Digital Summation blocks 2970 controlled the system controlblock 2910. The network 2960 of connections between DSC and/or DDSblocks 2940, 2950 and the Digital Summation blocks 2970 can beimplemented in any appropriate combination of connections. Theembodiment shown in FIG. 74 can be practically implemented in a numberof different ways, e.g. a digital cross connect, data switching ormultiplexing solution. Moreover, though FIG. 74 shows a relativelycomplex network 2960 of connections, any number of connections mayoccur, or the connections could be dedicated and not multiplexed. Oncesummation has occurred, the high speed digital data streams are sent torespective transmitters 2980 from the summation blocks 2970, whichproduces optical digital broadband transmission. Again, the number oftransmitters 2980 is for illustration only, and can be any numbersuitable for the application.

Because the entire RF spectrum processed by the system of FIG. 74 is nowrepresented by clocked digital codewords, it is now possible to performcombining through mathematical digital signal processing functionsrather than by combining RF signals. The digital codewords are notsusceptible to crosstalk or degradation from noise and non-linearity asis an analog signal, so the processing can be performed in afield-programmable gate array or other logic device that is essentiallycompletely configurable, i.e. to match the permutations found inchannels within a particular CATV system. When using system of FIG. 74,where the entire spectrum is represented by a set of time varyingdigital codewords rather than a set of individual time varying voltages,the entire function of the RF combining network can be replaced by asingle chassis with multiple digital inputs.

In addition, since similar type digital signal processing components areused to perform the calculations needed for direct digital signalsynthesis, this function can be integrated as well. The fundamentallimitation is the computational capability of the digital signalprocessing components. With existing technology, this becomes simply apricing consideration. So, simple Ethernet based transmission of programmaterial can now be easily incorporated into the CATV network with farless expense than is required today for separate QAM modulator products.

Yet another advantage is the potential for reusing spectrum. The typesof analog filters that would be required to delete an existing channelin the spectrum so that another channel on the same frequency couldreplace it are physically large and expensive, and often, theirperformance degrades adjacent channels. Hence a solution to reusespectrum using existing technology is at best, extremely challengingSince digital filters are only mathematical computations and not actualphysical products, subject to temperature drift, aging, and imperfectcomponents, essentially perfect filters can be produced in the digitaldomain. The digital filters are only limited by the computationalresources and the skill of filter designer.

From an operational perspective, the digital combining system shown inFIG. 74 is far simpler to use. Because no cables need be moved and noother adjustments are needed, the control of the switching function canbe performed entirely through a computer-based user interface. This caneven be done automatically, which is especially desirable for redundancyfunctions, or remotely by an operator. For the CATV operator, thisgreatly reduces operational costs. The convenience also permits frequentreconfiguration in response to customer and marketplace demands, whichis currently impracticable.

Additional implementation drawings for the system of FIG. 74 are shownin FIGS. 76-78.

FIG. 76 shows the most basic deployment of the invention as a digitalcombining system. An existing RF signal stream 3070 is converted intothe digital domain by the DSC block 3080. Additional video or datastreams in a digital format 3075 are modulated and upconverted by theDDS generator block 3085 to provide a digital representation of the RFsignals. These two digital representations are fed into the summationblock 3090 which adds them together digitally to produce a digitalbitstream 3095 containing the combined input streams.

FIG. 77 shows a more practical use of a digital combining system. Inthis case RF inputs from existing EQAM 3100, CMTS 3130, broadcast 3110and out of band 3120 sources are convered into digital signals by ADCblocks 3140. The digital outputs of these blocks are fed into thedigital summation block 3150 where they are combined to create acomposite signal containing all the input sources. This signal is thenpassed to the later stages of the transmission system as describedearlier 3160 for forwarding to the node 3170.

FIG. 78 illustrates an operating scenario of the digital combiningsystem with a mix of digital and analog inputs. In this case additionalprocessing functions are incorporated into the system. Digital inputfrom an EQAM system 4000 is received by a DDS block 4050 where a digitalrepresentation of the output RF spectrum is created and sent to thesummation unit 5000. Alternatively the input to an EQAM system could bedelivered directly to a video signal processing block 4030 within thesystem where EQAM functions are performed. In essence the EQAMfunctionality has been subsumed into the system. The output from thevideo signal processing block 4030 is again processed by a DDS block4050 and fed into the summation unit 5000. Input from a Modular CMTS4020 is shown being received into the M-CMTS interface block 4070. Incurrent head ends the M-CMTS would interface to an external EQAM whichwould provide physical layer processing for the CMTS data stream. Aswith the video processing these EQAM functions may be subsumed into thesystem so that an external EQAM is no longer required. The output fromthe M-CMTS interface block 4070 is again processed by a DDS block 4050and fed into the summation unit 5000. RF inputs from a broadcast source4030 and an out of band signaling channel 4040 may be processing in thesystem by analog to digital conversion blocks 4080 as previouslydescribed. The output from these blocks is fed into the summation unit5000. The output from the summation unit 5000 is a composite signalrepresenting the summation of all the inputs (digital and analog). Thissignal is then passed to the remainder of the transmission system 4090for processing and digital transmission to the node 4095 as describedpreviously.

One key advantage of digital bit stream transmission for analog RFsignals, as used in the systems of the present disclosure, is that thedigital link is agnostic to the nature of the RF signals it carries.Characteristics such as the type of modulation, the symbol depth orrate, etc. are not directly visible to the transmission system. Inaddition, impairments in the digital bit stream transmission link do notnecessarily have a one-to-one relationship impairing the signal carriedby transmission itself. Instead, there is a combined effect between thesampling bit depth, the sampling clock rate, the SNR of the system, andthe accuracy (jitter or phase noise) of the digital conversion clock,which will each combine with the performance of the digital optical linkto determine the quality of the signals carried over the link. ExistingCATV optical transmission systems are optimized for the performanceneeds of broadband RF services and for the expected formats that will becommercialized in the near future. However, given the industry trend ofmoving to increased services at ever-higher data rates, it is unclearwhether existing architectures for delivering CATV can keep pace.

The systems described in the present disclosure, however, permit theadjustment of operating parameters in order to handle an ever-expandingdemand for more content at higher data rates. Examples of suchadjustable operating parameters include Forward Error Correction (FEC),the sampling rate, bit depth, as well as the required bit-error ratio(BER) and modulation error ratio (MER) based upon the application. Theseparameters are interdependent, and the overall improvement inperformance by adjusting each of these parameters will vary based uponthe specifics of the system, as well as the deployment architecture andthe signals that are being carried by the transmission system.

The Forward Error Correction block within the system, such as block 570in FIGS. 17, 18, 23, and 24 and block 860 in FIGS. 30 and 32 can beenabled, disabled or the encoding scheme, and in turn the overhead, canbe changed, providing additional line bandwidth that can be used toincrease the signal to noise ratio (SNR) when performance is preferredover the advantages of FEC protection. In a typical system which isdesigned for J.83 based 256 QAM and an upper frequency range of 1 GHz to1.2 GHz, a bit depth of 10 bits would likely be chosen along with asampling frequency of 2.5 GSps. This results in a nominal serial bitrate of 25 Gbps (ignoring the approximately 3% overhead of 64b/66bencoding if used). Typical FEC overhead for optical signals running atthese data rates is approximately 3 Gbps, which brings the 25 Gbps linerate up to approximately 28 Gbps. If, in a particular system, ForwardError Correction is not required, but additional SNR is desired, FEC maybe disabled and the extra line bandwidth of the system used to carry anextra sampling bit instead. Each additional sampling bit increases theserial line rate by an amount that is equal to the sampling rate. Forexample, if the sampling depth is increased from 10 bits to 11 bits,while operating at a sample rate of 2.5 GSps, the line rate willincrease by 2.5 Gbps from 25 Gbps to 27.5 Gbps. This new line rate isless than the original line rate which included the FEC overhead, yet ittheoretically provides an additional 6.02 dB of SNR (this improvementcan also be analyzed as a reduction in quantization error). Thisincrease is an example, and of course actual gain will depend uponimplementation details such as the Effective Number of Bits (ENOB)available at conversion. If the Analog to Digital Converter or Digitalto Analog Converter have an ENOB that is lower than the number of bitsbeing transmitted, then little or no improvement in SNR will beobserved. Depending on the application, a 6 dB improvement in SNR allowsfor an improvement in spectral efficiency of two bits in the depth ofmodulation. For example a 256 QAM system (8 bits/second/Hz) could becomea 1024 QAM (10 bits/second/Hz) system or a 1024 QAM system could becomea 4096 QAM (12 bits/second/Hz) system.

Sampling Rate within the system primarily affects two performanceparameters of the signals being carried by the transmission system, themaximum channel frequency limit and the oversampling gain. Therelationship between sampling rate and maximum frequency isstraightforward and well understood. This relationship is commonlyreferred to as the Nyquist-Shannon theorem and states that at a minimum,the sampling clock must be equal to or greater than twice the highestfrequency of interest. This requirement is in place both to guaranteethat there will be enough samples in time in order to resolve thehighest frequencies of interest and also to make sure that the aliasingimage does not fold back into the spectrum of interest.

The relationship between sampling frequency and SNR is less common, butalso well understood. In this case, increasing the sampling frequencyactually improves the effective SNR of the system. This relationship isas follows:

${\Delta\;{SNR}\mspace{14mu}({dB})} = {10*{{Log}\left( \frac{{Sampling}\mspace{14mu}{Frequency}\mspace{14mu}({Hz})}{2*{Signal}\mspace{14mu}{Bandwidth}\mspace{14mu}({Hz})} \right)}}$As the equation above shows, when the sampling frequency equals theNyquist rate (twice the maximum frequency of interest) there is nooversampling gain (0 dB). When the sampling frequency is twice theNyquist rate, there is a 3 dB improvement in SNR.

The above equation gave the oversampling gain, because the quantizationnoise is distributed over the frequency range from zero to one half ofthe sampling frequency. When the sampling rate is increased, thequantization noise within the signal bandwidth is reduced.

Another benefit of higher sampling rate is the tolerance to moreabsolute phase noise, i.e. given a constant absolute phase noise, thehigher the sampling frequency, the smaller the jitter will be:

${Jitter} = {\frac{1}{2\pi\; f}{\sum\limits_{f}{{Phase\_ noise}.}}}$We can see from this formula that as the sampling frequency increases,system jitter proportionally decreases.

In the case of a CATV system, each channel is isolated, hence it mightappear that the high sampling clock would cause oversampling gain forindividual RF channels. Yet, in reality, because the ADC takes theentire spectrum of the RF channels combined and digitized, even thoughit is true that each channels noise is isolated, each channel's powerlevel will be lowered at the same ratio. Assuming that the RF spectrumis flat, there would be no oversampling gain as long as the highestchannel frequency is half the sampling frequency. In a multichannel CATVsystem, the oversampling gain cannot be calculated by a single channelbandwidth, rather it must be calculated by the entire bandwidth of allof the channels combined. An alternative way to view this relationshipis that there is no oversampling gain as a long as the entire spectrumis filled. In the cases where fewer channels than the maximum are used,there can be oversampling gain. Certainly, the spectrum between 0 and 50or so MHz would be unused. In addition, other segments might not be usedwhen channels are left open or when the coaxial system bandwidth is lessthan half the sampling frequency. But, in normal implementations thegain is rather marginal.

With respect the effects of bit depth adjustment, it is well establishedthat the SNR=6.02*N+1.76 (dB) when considering the ADC quantizationerror. When taking into account thermal noise and ADC nonlinearitynoise, the digitized SNR becomes SNR=6.02*ENOB+1.76 (dB). ENOB is theeffective number of bits and depends slightly on the RF frequency of theinput signal. The higher the input RF frequency, the fewer ENOB, but theENOB decrease is usually relatively small. And ADC vendor's datasheetwill list the ENOB numbers.

On the other hand, system jitter will degrade the ADC SNR; assuming theworst case sine wave analog input, jitter induced SNR degradation iscalculated as SNR=−20 log(2πfτ), and τis the total RMS system jittercalculated as τ=√{square root over (τ_(clk) ²+τ_(RF) ²)}. If the totalsystem jitter is 0.5 ps, for example, the ADC SNR will be limited to 50dB which correspond to roughly 8 Bits of ADC bits, meaning that the ENOBabove 8 bits will increase the SNR much less effectively.

If system jitter is a limiting factor, and the jitter-limited SNR is onthe margin of a good system performance, a stronger FEC can be used toreduce the signal degradation in the system and restore the systemperformance. When the system jitter is small and jitter is not alimiting factor in system performance, the FEC can be omitted and theextra bits used. In addition, more ADC bits can be used to increase SNRto the level that the system can support higher modulation formats,including 1024 QAM, 4096 QAM, etc. Thus, the transmitters disclosed inthe present application may be configured to be capable of varying theamount of content that the transmitter processes and propagates onto afiber optic network over the full range between 256 QAM to 1024 QAM, forexample, or alternatively over the full range between 256 QAM and 4096QAM (or 1024 QAM to 4096 QAM) etc. The other options are to increase thesampling frequency to lower the effective system jitter when the systemperformance is jitter limited.

In the transmission systems described in this disclosure, digitizedsignals are transmitted over an optical fiber. Moreover, differentoptical modulation formats may be used in these transmission systems. Inthe optical system, if the optical SNR becomes degraded, there will bebit errors in the receiver, which will impact the DAC's recovered SNR orMER. However, there is not necessarily a one-to-one relationship betweenerrors on the baseband digital link and the content that is beingcarried over the link. In practice, bit errors on the baseband digitallink will effectively turn into random noise bits which will be added tothe DAC noise. For example, assuming a bit error ratio of 10^−4 on thebaseband digital link, the 10^−4 errors of ‘0’s and ‘1’s in the receiverequivalently will cause an equivalent 10^−4 noise bits to be added tothe DAC noise. From this, it can be deduced that the optical domain biterrors will have limited impact on the recovered MER value as long asthe optical bit error ratio is not less than 10^−4. This assumes thatthe equalized MER is just the DAC-restored SNR after eliminating RFchannel distortions. These calculations are simply an example, and theexact relationship will depend upon parameters such as the modulationand FEC encoding schemes that are used. This is fundamentally differentthan what occurs in today's CATV transmission systems where degradationin the optical link is inseparable from impairment in the contentsignal.

For a well designed system, the optical transmission will not degradethe RF signal quality or the pre and post FEC error rates. On the otherhand, the optical transmission errors have different characteristics; itis well understood and easier to budget this type of transmissionsystem.

FIG. 79 generally shows one example of a technique that allows selectiveparameters of a transmission system to be monitored, and based on thetime-varying characteristics of those parameters, selectively adjustedto improve system performance. Specifically, in step 3000 one or moreparameters can be monitored, which in this instance are the parametersof SNR, pre-FEC BER and post-FEC BER. These performance characteristicsmay be monitored by the cable modems and set top boxes in the downstreamdirection and by the CMTS in the upstream direction. These monitors arebuilt into all of the demodulators. All of the performancecharacteristics for the data portion of the system are available to theoperator either in or through the CMTS via SNMP. Downstreamcharacteristics are captured by the cable modems and then the operatorcan query these values through the CMTS either manually or automaticallythrough SNMP software connections. Some set top boxes have embeddedcable modems, and these can also be queried through the CMTS. Set topboxes that do not have embedded cable modems can use externalcommunication systems in order to query this data, such as the MotorolaSmartStream Terminal Data Collector. All of these systems can beconnected to and controlled by an external hardware/software solution.Based on the readings of the monitored parameters, the disclosedtechnique shows a number of decision steps that, when followed, producefive possible system adjustments as delineated below.

First, in step 3010, it is determined if pre-FEC errors are present,which are bit errors occurring before forward error correction. If theanswer is yes, then in decision step 3015, it is determined if post FECerrors are occurring, which are bit errors after forward errorcorrection. If the answer is no, then in step 3035 the settings are notchanged, and the adjustment procedure resets to step 3000.

Second, in step 3010, it is determined if pre-FEC errors are present. Ifthe answer is yes, then in decision step 3015, it is determined if postFEC errors are occurring. If the answer is yes, then in decision step3020 it is determined if an addition of bits by the ADC causes SNR toincrease. If the answer is yes, then in step 3025 settings areconfigured to set the number of bits used by the ADC to the increasedrate, and the adjustment procedure resets to step 3000.

Third, in step 3010, it is determined if pre-FEC errors are present. Ifthe answer is yes, then in decision step 3015, it is determined if postFEC errors are occurring. If the answer is yes, then in decision step3020 it is determined if an addition of bits by the ADC causes SNR toincrease. If the answer is no, then in step 3040 settings are configuredto increase the clock rate while maintain the number of bits used by theADC, without increase, and the adjustment procedure resets to step 3000.

Fourth, in step 3010, it is determined if pre-FEC errors are present. Ifthe answer is no, then in step 3030 forward error correction is turnedoff and in decision step 3045 it is determined if SNR increases as theADC uses more bits. If the answer is no, then in step 3060 settings areconfigured to maintain the number of bits used by the ADC, withoutincrease, while forward error correction remains off, in essentially a“power saving” mode, and the adjustment procedure resets to step 3000.

Fifth, in step 3010, it is determined if pre-FEC errors are present. Ifthe answer is no, then in step 3030 forward error correction is turnedoff and in decision step 3045 it is determined if SNR increases as theADC uses more bits. If the answer is yes, then in step 3050 settings areconfigured to set the number of bits used by the ADC to the increasedrate while FEC correction remains off, enabling the use of higher ordermodulation, and the adjustment procedure resets to step 3000. In shouldbe noted that if this particular adjustment is reached in successiveiterations of the foregoing procedure, the transmitters described in thepresent disclosure are capable of reaching orders of modulation as highas 4096QAM.

The procedure shown in FIG. 79 may be implemented in any of the newtransmitters previously disclosed. For example, FIGS. 80-82 showtransmitters with different modulation formats, including ODB as well asDML and EML. Each of these transmitters are compatible with theadjustments just described. Each of these figures shows the ADC as wellas the FEC module as components that can be adjusted/reconfigured.Depending on the end-to-end system performance, the ADC as well as FECare selectively adjusted to achieve the following benefits.

For systems with jitter-limited digitized and recovered signal SNR,using less ADC bits saves power because more bits will not help SNRsignificantly, and depending on whether there are pre-FEC errors and howlow the BER rate is, different FEC coding can correct systemperformance. On the other hand, if the system jitter is low, and we areoperating below the ENOB, using more ADC bits gives higher SNR. This inturn means the FEC function can be turned off, removing the extraoverhead associated with the FEC encoding. This freed up line bandwidthcan then be used to transmit more payload data. The increased SNR willalso make the system better able to accommodate higher order RFmodulation formats. In a third case, if the system jitter is largeenough that the system still shows errors even with strong FEC, the ADCclock frequency can be increased to effectively lower the system jitterand increase SNR. As indicated above, by combining the operation of bothFEC and ADC, a wide range of digital parameters can be adjusted toeither allocate extra bandwidth for more data transmission or run thesystem in a power saving mode, depending on system performance and thedeployment scenario.

It should be understood that, although the flexibility of the disclosedtransmitters were illustrated using an example of adjusting parametersof FEC and ADC modules after monitoring parameters of BER and SNR, otherembodiments may monitor different parameters and/or adjust differentmodules in a transmitter to optimize performance. For example, if theend-to-end monitored MER is good and was not significantly affected bylowering the ADC resolution, less ADC bits can be used for the sameapplication, or the extra bits can be used to transmit in a more dataintensive modulation format, like 1024 QAM or 4096 QAM. Otherpermutations are also possible, as many different parameters such assampling frequency, MER, etc. can be monitored and many differentmodules can be adjusted, e.g. a serializer or deserializer, a 64b/66bencoder or decoder etc. It should also be understood that, though theforegoing discussion used the adjustment and monitoring of transmitterparameters, transmitters may be adjustably configured based on monitoredparameters at a receiver, and configurations of receivers may also beoptimized based on parameters monitored in either the receiver or thetransmitter. Alternatively, in this embodiment, these parameters mayalso be determined and manually configured as part of the deploymentdesign, and in turn may remain fixed and not adjusted based upon realtime performance metrics.

The terms and expressions that have been employed in the foregoingspecification are used therein as terms of description and not oflimitation, and there is no intention, in the use of such terms andexpressions, of excluding equivalents of the features shown anddescribed or portions thereof, it being recognized that the scope of theclaimed subject matter is defined and limited only by the claims thatfollow.

We claim:
 1. A system for sharing a single transmitter spectrum acrossmultiple analog spectrums, the system comprising: at least one modulatorfor generating and transmitting analog content to a plurality oftransmitters, wherein a frequency of a first analog content transmittedto a digital transmitter is generated by the at least one modulator tobe non-overlapping with frequencies of analog content transmitted to aplurality of analog transmitters; the digital transmitter receiving thefirst analog content, that is common among each of a plurality of users,from the at least one modulator, said digital transmitter sampling anddigitizing said entire spectrum of the first content input to thedigital transmitter; the plurality of analog transmitters, each analogtransmitter for receiving analog content common among only a subset ofsaid plurality of users from the at least one modulator; each analogtransmitter outputting at least one analog output representative of saidrespectively received analog content; a summation network directing to afirst node a first signal that includes: a first digital representationof said entire spectrum of the first analog content input to the digitaltransmitter and digitally output from the digital transmitter, and theanalog representation of analog content output from a first one of theplurality of analog transmitters, the summation network directing to asecond node a second signal that includes: a second digitalrepresentation of said entire spectrum of the first analog content inputto the first transmitter and digitally output from the firsttransmitter, and the analog representation of analog content output froma second one of the plurality of analog transmitters.
 2. The system ofclaim 1 where said first signal is propagated on first and secondcarrier waves, and said second signal is propagated on first and thirdcarrier waves, said second carrier wave different from said thirdcarrier wave.
 3. The system of claim 2 including the digital transmitterhaving an output to a splitter, the first one of the plurality of analogtransmitters having an output to a first combiner, and the second one ofthe plurality of analog transmitters having an output to a secondcombiner, and where said splitter has outputs to said first and secondcombiners, respectively.
 4. The system of claim 3 where said digitaltransmitter outputs a digital signal and said analog transmitters eachoutput an analog signal.
 5. The system of claim 1, further comprisingone or more additional digital transmitters, each for outputting adigital signal for combination with an output from another transmitterin the system.
 6. The system of claim 5 where each of said digitaltransmitters receive an analog signal representing respective content.7. The system of claim 1 where each of said at least one transmitter islocated in a head end.
 8. The system of claim 1 wherein the digital andone or more of the plurality of analog transmitters are located remotelyfrom each other.
 9. The system of claim 8 where said digital transmitteris located in a head end and transmits said first content, and said oneor more remote analog transmitters is located along a signal pathbetween said head end and said first and second nodes, and transmitsrespective analog content.
 10. A system operatively located along asignal path between a head end and a node, said system comprising: (a) afirst receiver for receiving first cable television (CATV) contentconverted to a digital optical bit stream in a headend that is forcommon distribution among each of a plurality of users, said firstreceiver converting the first CATV content from the digital optical bitstream to an electrical signal for processing by a digital summationnetwork; (b) a second receiver receiving second CATV content commonamong only a first subset of said plurality of users, and a third CATVcontent common among only a second subset of said plurality of users,and for processing by a digital summation network, said second receiverconverting the second CATV content and the third content in to a digitalbit stream form if content is received in radio frequency format orup-converting the content if received in a digital bit stream form; (c)the digital summation network for synchronizing received content anddirecting a first signal containing said first CATV content and saidsecond CATV content to a first node, and directing a second signalcontaining said first CATV content and said third CATV content to asecond node, wherein said system receives said first CATV content fromsaid head end and receives said second and said third CATV content froma source other than said head end.
 11. The system of claim 10 where saidfirst content, said second content, and said third content are directedto their respective nodes while encoded.
 12. The system of claim 11wherein a digital conversion clock frequency used by the headend toconvert the first CATV content is the same as a frequency used in aconversion clock used by second receiver for the second content.
 13. Thesystem of claim 10 further comprising at least one transmitter that addsencoding to said second and third content that is removed from saidfirst content by said receiver.
 14. The system of claim 10 furthercomprising at least one transmitter having a first component and asecond component, operatively separated from each other by a summationblock.
 15. A system operatively located along a signal path between ahead end and a node, said system comprising (a) a first receiver forreceiving first cable television (CATV) content converted to a digitaloptical bit stream in a headend that is for common distribution amongeach of a plurality of users, said first receiver converting the firstCATV content from the digital optical bit stream to an electrical signaland for processing by a digital summation network; (b) a second receiverreceiving second CATV content common among only a first subset of saidplurality of users, and a third CATV content common among only a secondsubset of said plurality of users, and for processing by a digitalsummation network, said receiver converting the second content and thethird CATV content in to a digital bit stream form if content isreceived in radio frequency format or up-converting the content ifreceived in a digital bit stream form; (c) the digital summation networkfor synchronizing received content and directing a first signalcontaining said first CATV content and said second CATV content to afirst node, and directing a second signal containing said first CATVcontent and said third CATV content to a second node, wherein at leastone transmitter having a first component and a second component,operatively separated from each other by a summation block.
 16. Thesystem of claim 15 where said transmitter receives said first contentfrom said head end and receives said second and said third content froma source other than said head end.
 17. The system of claim 16 where atleast one of DDS and DSC is applied to said second and third contentprior to summation by said summation block.
 18. The system of claim 15wherein said first receiver receives said first content from said headend while encoded and removes its encoding.
 19. The system of claim 18where said transmitter adds encoding to said first content removed bysaid receiver.